Time Building in Philippines or Thailand?

HVYMETALDRVR

HVYMETALDRVR

Well-Known Member
Hey I need to build multi-engine hours and would like to do so overseas, specifically in Philippines and Thailand. I've researched this a bit and found some schools but I can't find much about actual time building. Also would there be any issues logging the time in an RPC numbered or HS numbered aircraft in my FAA logbook in an overseas country? (I have all FAA licenses by the way) Also how is the price comparison? Time building is never cheap but I was wondering how it would compare with US prices. I found one school that had its charter price listed as 500 USD per hour for a Seneca and 800 USD/hr for a Baron., but that was for charter...

Also the Philippines schools mention type ratings in every aircraft such as the Cessna 150, 172 etc. Does this mean you need to be signed off in each aircraft you fly in the Philippines? JW

Any recommended schools for this? Like I said I've found quite a few places but not sure where to start? Thanks in advance.
 
Time building is still worth while in United States. There are lots of Multi-Engine airplane in U.S., talk to the owner and buy block hours.

I remember not long ago, there was chap bought US$200/hour to fly Seneca I solo! At that time, he barely has 15hours in twin and the owner likes him and he let him flies the airplane for cheap deal.

I personally have see people sharing cost for flying twin. One is MEI and the other is ME rated pilot. Both split cost, both flew, both clock the same hours legally! Each of them is paying less than US$130 per hour to the owner!

You are in the United States, everything can be done here. It is so hard to featch good deal outside United States. If you want to do, please do it here. It takes time and patience.

Thailand and Philippines are expensive. They will not let a foreigner fly freely.
 
cadbury said:
Time building is still worth while in United States. There are lots of Multi-Engine airplane in U.S., talk to the owner and buy block hours.

I remember not long ago, there was chap bought US$200/hour to fly Seneca I solo! At that time, he barely has 15hours in twin and the owner likes him and he let him flies the airplane for cheap deal.

I personally have see people sharing cost for flying twin. One is MEI and the other is ME rated pilot. Both split cost, both flew, both clock the same hours legally! Each of them is paying less than US$130 per hour to the owner!

You are in the United States, everything can be done here. It is so hard to featch good deal outside United States. If you want to do, please do it here. It takes time and patience.

Thailand and Philippines are expensive. They will not let a foreigner fly freely.
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I use to rent a piper Seminole for 180 $/hour (with GPS) in Florida

In Australia you can fly an old Twin Comanche for 150 dollars/hour, but you will have to spend some money on getting the license validation.

In Thailand you can fly freely any plane from a flying club (not many twins), renting a plane over there is about 15% more expensive than in the US. A private owned is really hard to fly, you need to get permission from the Govt. Getting the license is a piece of cake and will cost you around 500 dollars....I did it.

If you want to save money stay in the US.
 
Be careful doing it out in the Philippines. I've done some research in the past and there is some shady stuff going on at a lot of the schools. Many people have reported that a school will say "If you pay x, you'll only get to fly y but we'll put 2y in your logbook. If you pay 2x we'll let you fly 2y and log 2y in your logbook". This has probably pushed a lot of desperate people to do illegal things, don't get caught up in a mess like that. It is also usually more expensive to rent out there than it is out here.

However, minimums in the Philippines are much lower than out here, when Air Philippines last hired on the 732(they're being retired now for Q400s and A320s), minimums were about 250TT maybe less with a Philippines Commercial Certificate, no multi-engine needed, they'd provide it. It is also not uncommon to find people well under 30 in A330/340s. While overall QOL as far as living there goes compared to the states, that would vary on the individual, but pilots in the Philippines generally live much more lavishly than pilots at US regionals as their income is high above the country's average and luxuries are generally inexpensive. Flight attendants flying with Filipino carriers have to be in virtual perfect shape, attractive, single, and young(I'm not saying I think that is right, I'm simply stating that is a fact in this part of the world). The outlook for jobs isn't too bad either as the majority of Filipino carriers are expanding with a few new players coming into the game. The most recent being an airline based in Clark, which is an arguably undeserved airport Northwest of Manila which also serves as the location for Philippine Airlines' pilot training center. Upgrade time at most carriers is reported to be very quick, though I think Cebu Pacific hasn't hired in a while. One other thing I'll throw out there, last time I checked the number one cause of fatal accidents in the Philippines was controlled flight into terrain. In one crash, the GPWS went off I believe 7 times and the crew ignored it and continued descending. That makes you wonder about the quality of the instruction at the airlines. On a related note, almost every Filipino carrier is banned from flying to the European Union, including the flag carrier Philippine Airlines. And until recently, the US refused delivery of Philippine Airlines' first 773 and the carrier was unable to launch new routes due to its poor maintenance standards. This ban was lifted somewhat recently.

And if you think Networking is important here, in the Philippines it is ALL about who you know, period. For anything. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who you are. If I wanted to live in Manila and married my girlfriend I could be in Philippine Airlines' next pilot cadet course. Meanwhile kids who have grown up there with a dream to fly for the airline are turned down left and right. If you want to start flying there, I suggest you join an expat forum and start making connections before you even think about packing your bags.

I can't tell you about about Thailand, but those are the pros and cons in a nutshell I've found in a crap-ton of research I've done about flying in the Philippines. I'm guessing you want to learn there to start a career there which is why I shared all this, any questions and you can PM me.
 
Thanks for the info, maybe I'll do most of my timebuilding in the US then. Though would like to get out there and log a few hours in some different airspace but maybe I'll stick to a cheaper 150 out there and do the expensive multi stuff here.

That said I wouldn't expect to get a job in the Philippines, I have been there before and am acquanted with a few people but from what I've been told unless your really someone special you need to be a natural born Filipino to get in with most of the airlines. Like most Asian countries they discriminate significantly and only hire they're own. I'd love to live there and I will someday but I'd rather be with Fedex living in Subic. Bangkok is actually my priority anyways and though hard right now I've been told its easier to get a flying job there as an American than PH for sure.

180 an hour for a Seminole? Thats pretty good I did my multi in one for 195/hr back in 2005, now it looks like I'll be forking out about 265 for a Seneca, but if I split it with a buddy and get my GI Bill it should still be very cheap.

Thanks for the input!
 
Yeah, being a FedEx CA based in Subic would be a dream job for sure. But hey, BKK isn't all that much worse.
 
swisspilot said:
I use to rent a piper Seminole for 180 $/hour (with GPS) in Florida

In Australia you can fly an old Twin Comanche for 150 dollars/hour, but you will have to spend some money on getting the license validation.

In Thailand you can fly freely any plane from a flying club (not many twins), renting a plane over there is about 15% more expensive than in the US. A private owned is really hard to fly, you need to get permission from the Govt. Getting the license is a piece of cake and will cost you around 500 dollars....I did it.

If you want to save money stay in the US.
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A Twin Commanche for $150 an hour in Australia? Wow that seems extremely cheap!

My school has one Beech Duchess and charges AU$398.00 an hour! It's prices like these that turn me off the thought of getting my ratings in Australia (I'm both US and Australian citizen).
 
OK, this may have come up previously, but I need to wrap my hands around this completely before I move on. FAA licensed pilot flying non -"N" registered aircraft. I'll be heading over to the Bahamas next month, and I will be doing some flight time. The airplane is a "C6" which is Bahamanian registration. I might pick up potentially 20 hours of flight time.

So, the semantics. I'm quite certain I can log PIC time; am I authorized to act as PIC? Another off-shoot of those questions is if I'm able to fly "solo?"

Is there something more in line of administrative requirements that have to be performed?
 
MFT1Air said:
OK, this may have come up previously, but I need to wrap my hands around this completely before I move on. FAA licensed pilot flying non -"N" registered aircraft. I'll be heading over to the Bahamas next month, and I will be doing some flight time. The airplane is a "C6" which is Bahamanian registration. I might pick up potentially 20 hours of flight time.

So, the semantics. I'm quite certain I can log PIC time; am I authorized to act as PIC? Another off-shoot of those questions is if I'm able to fly "solo?"

Is there something more in line of administrative requirements that have to be performed?
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Not sure if you can log PIC, but Total and Dual time only with a local CFI. When I first moved to Brazil, the FAA told me it was fine for me to log Total time with my FAA license as long as I was flying with a CFI and getting instruction. There may be some local rules too, not sure if Bahamas has some kind validation for your FAA, you better check with them. There are some places where it's totally fine for you to fly with your FAA license on local planes but they make you take a regulation test, like in Dominican Republic.
 
swisspilot said:
Not sure if you can log PIC, but Total and Dual time only with a local CFI. When I first moved to Brazil, the FAA told me it was fine for me to log Total time with my FAA license as long as I was flying with a CFI and getting instruction. There may be some local rules too, not sure if Bahamas has some kind validation for your FAA, you better check with them. There are some places where it's totally fine for you to fly with your FAA license on local planes but they make you take a regulation test, like in Dominican Republic.
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Thanks, which begged the obvious question. . .with a CFI, I'm quite confident that person can provide an "endorsement" for solo if I am a 'student.' In the case, even with a gazillion hours, it's acting PIC vice sole manipulator logging PIC. . .I think.
 
You can fly a C6 registration aircraft anywhere in the United States with FAA licenses using your certificates as long as you can "reasonably ascertain that the aircraft is airworthy." Thats coming from a DPE and 20 year now retired FAA inspector that I send my students to for they're checkrides. I asked him about this because of ferry trip of mine (that fell through) involved me ferrying down a 152 of Trinidad registry back home.

How are you flying this aircraft? I assume your rated but are you flying it for fun as a Pvt or using your Commercial certificate for hire? If your just using PPL to log time and for fun just go to Bahamas.gov.bs and contact the Civil Aviation Department and they should send you some sort of temporary certificate or waiver letting you fly it in. I say this with confidence because I've trained a few Bahamian guys down here and they go back to Nassau and basically get they're BH Commercial certificate 1 for 1 after passing they're checkride here. The same goes for Turks and Caicos, in fact students that they train for they're PPL actually come up here to Miami and FLL to take they're checkrides with FAA DPEs. Since they do the checkride to FAA and T&C standards they get a a dual certificate...

So yeah, just contact the Bahamian CAA or the nearest Bahamian consolute and ask. As long as your appropriate rated with FAA certs I would be surprised if they wanted anything more than for you to carry a waiver for flying the aircraft in they're airspace, even if your doing it for Commercial privileges.

Good luck and don't get lost in the Bermuda Triangle! ;)
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
You can fly a C6 registration aircraft anywhere in the United States with FAA licenses using your certificates as long as you can "reasonably ascertain that the aircraft is airworthy." Thats coming from a DPE and 20 year now retired FAA inspector that I send my students to for they're checkrides. I asked him about this because of ferry trip of mine (that fell through) involved me ferrying down a 152 of Trinidad registry back home.

How are you flying this aircraft? I assume your rated but are you flying it for fun as a Pvt or using your Commercial certificate for hire? If your just using PPL to log time and for fun just go to Bahamas.gov.bs and contact the Civil Aviation Department and they should send you some sort of temporary certificate or waiver letting you fly it in. I say this with confidence because I've trained a few Bahamian guys down here and they go back to Nassau and basically get they're BH Commercial certificate 1 for 1 after passing they're checkride here. The same goes for Turks and Caicos, in fact students that they train for they're PPL actually come up here to Miami and FLL to take they're checkrides with FAA DPEs. Since they do the checkride to FAA and T&C standards they get a a dual certificate...

So yeah, just contact the Bahamian CAA or the nearest Bahamian consolute and ask. As long as your appropriate rated with FAA certs I would be surprised if they wanted anything more than for you to carry a waiver for flying the aircraft in they're airspace, even if your doing it for Commercial privileges.

Good luck and don't get lost in the Bermuda Triangle! ;)
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Flying for fun. Former college buddy was from the Bahamas and returned there after retirement. Owns his own charter service, but has his own personal aircraft. I simply wanna fly and enjoy the sites. All I pay for is fuel. While working here at NASA, my friend had a chance to fly the shuttle simulator and backseat the shuttle training aircraft. After that, aint nothing he won't do for me, so I will have carte blanche with his airplane.

Thanks for the info.
 
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