WHACKMASTER

Thanks myoface. Trust me, I take what you guys have to say seriously. Let me apologize also, but I just read page 87 and the apparent shinnagans that have been going on. That's very sad to hear. My heart goes out to those that are involved in that integration mess. I'm involved in a little bit, okay a lot of it myself. It really takes the fun out of your day.

With that said, I'd still like to do my due diligence and learn more about this opportunity. Don't worry myoface, making a move is a SERIOUS thing to consider. If there's one thing that I'd like to think that I've learned in my aviation career, is to take these things extremely seriously.

The Dominican

WM

Contract work: Contracts have provisions on them for both parties to cancel them, there is monetary penalties associated with the cancellation, some contracts have bonds attached to them (AJX doesn't) and there are also provisions to pay the employee a lump sum due to the cancellation but both you and the company can get out of it. In fact it has happened before, in the early 90's they had contract pilots flying the 74 here and they decided to cancel those contracts, they had to pay the employees a lump sum but they indeed cancel them, a short time later is when they offered the contract for the 767 and AJX was born, those pilots were contacted and some of them came back for the new contract and in fact a couple of them are still here. the contracts at AJV (the cargo operation) where in fact canceled recently thus losing the 11th day off, and now all pilots operate under the T&C's at AJX 10 days off with the option of 2 commuting days and you could add 2 vacation days. 14 total, no other option is available, so you see they can not only take the two commuting days but also the contract all together. Unlikely it will happen though with the growth they are experiencing and the deficit in hiring at mainline ANA.

Contract thru an agency vs. direct employment with an airline abroad: There are some airlines that hire pilots directly and folks feel that this is a more secure position as a result, the simple reality as I see it is that there is no security nor permanency in any employment as an ex pat pilot, not like what we are familiar with in the US, people get fired without any means to fight it from both so called "permanent jobs" and contracts a like, you read about it regularly on Internet forums, some might not agree with the way I see it, oh well.

Training: it not at all anything like the training in the US, at any company abroad. The training here is long and repetitive, it is all about the perfect execution of the raw data visual pattern and the center hydraulic system failure. People do wash out of training, some times airmanship, a lot of times attitude and other reasons, but they do wash people out, it seems to me that some folks just breeze thru it and others have to be put in suicide watch. to answer another one of your questions, all training is done at the ANA training center near Haneda airport and all recurrent training and checks, medical checks are incorporated into your roster as part of your duty period, they are pretty good at leaving you alone on your days off.

Commuting: You can choose to get an extra $2000/month or business class to your home city, ANA has direct flights to JFK and they can also use "UCAL" since they are Star Alliance

All About You: Where I see that you fit into the equation is that your experience is good for DEC not only here but at other jobs as well, I would recommend that you get in contact with your former co workers that are now here since they can give you a unique point of view on the whole deal, If you let me know your contacts (on PM's of course) I can make the arrangements for you guys to get in touch. Another advantage that you have is time, I foresee that the need for pilots here and other jobs abroad is going to be huge in the next few years so you have time to see what will come out of that mess over there, who knows? you might end up not needing to go anywhere.

Harvey32

Hi everyone,
I'm thinking of applying to Air Japan, and I have a question.
Will Air Japan be getting any Dreamliners?

The Dominican

Nope.....!

myoface

ha...they would not even let the lowly gaijin LOOK in the 787 sim when it was being built.

Harvey32

Is working for Air Japan still something you'd recommend? I've read the previous posts and it doesn't seem that bad.

I'm really interested in this. I like the 14 days off per month.

Thanks.

H

The Dominican

Can't really tell you if it will work for you or not, everyone's situation is very different. The job has good and bad points, training is long and uncertain, now that we are doing cargo it is about 60% of the roster and the duties are difficult with a couple of sectors in the middle of the night and more often than not with a 3 to 4 hour sit in the sorting station in Okinawa and I don't think that anybody in their right mind likes that. It does have a lot of good things as well, the ability to get 14 days, business class, you will be paired to fly with ex pats most of the time, well maintained a/c's and great cabin crews. You have to weigh in the good with the bad I suppose, all I can tell you is that it works for me and after some examination of the commuting jobs out there I decided to stay, but some people have left and taken jobs back in the US

anotherpilot

Hi guys,

I am a soon to be furloughed World pilot. I have been researching other options, namely Atlas and ANA. I am a somewhat familiar with the type of work and schedules Atlas keeps (long legs and some cool layovers) but I know little to nothing about the typical day, week, month at ANA. Could someone give me a general break down of your schedules? Hours flown in a month, a year? That kind of thing.

thanks in advance,

Anotherpilot

The Dominican

Now we are doing a mix of cargo and passenger flying where you will have about 60 to 70% cargo trips. The skippers are flying about 60 hours a month or so (minimum guaranteed is 70 hours) the F/O's might fly a little more but I would say that between 70 and 80 hours.
Everyone has the ability to take 14 days in a row now and I don't think there is a single pilot that is not doing so, 10 days off + 2 commuting days + 2 monthly vacation days, guys are taking their vacations by combining days off back to back.
In a given roster you will begin late the first day (most of the time) and there will be changes during the month from night to day operations and that makes it pretty fatiguing, the rosters is one thing that we are trying to have the company address right now. Outside of Honolulu, all our destinations are in SE Asia, Taipei, Bangkok, Saigon, Okinawa (that is our sorting station, we now make two sectors with a stopover in Naha for 2 to 4 hours at a time) Singapore, Incheon and several destinations in main line China, there is some commuting involved since we do flights out of Haneda and Kansai as well. Most of the time you will be able to commute the last day of your duty since they will schedule you finish early enough to catch a flight home the same day.

anotherpilot

Thanks for the response Dominican.

A mix of cargo and pax flying? That actually sounds kinda nice. We have a mix of both here at World as well. It works out well. You get tired of dealing with FAs and look forward to cargo. You get tired of the night cargo runs and you look forward to someone making the coffee for you! I like to think I am a glass half full of beer pilot .

You stated that scheduling is set up so that you can go home the same day that you finish a trip. Does that mean you get to squeeze an extra day off into you time at home?