2009. március 19., csütörtök

Some first hand info on Kenyan pilot licence validation torture

From LOW BURNER via PPRue:
I just got back from 2 months over there.
Pilot licence conversion test for CPL is on the second thursday of each month. Only this day. Dont miss it. It costs $200 us dollars. I dont know what your licence is like but the Kenyan exam is a lot different than the canadian one. A good deal of the questions are written in broken english and the words combined do not equal a sentance. Its multiple choice and done on a computer.
You go to the Kenyan civil aviation authority to book the test. You go across the building to pay for the test at the Kenyan revenue authority. You then go back to the Aviation authority then they tell you when and where to write the test. The test is on the old airport road down a small road at the East African School of flying. Despite confirming and visiting several times to make sure i was booked for certain date they still did not have me on the list when i arrived. Had to stand in the Testing office and demand that i could write the test for one hour and refuse to leave before they allowed me to write.
If you go a couple weeks ahead of time you can get a flying shool to prep you for the exam. Dont know the cost of that process though. Once you have a licence in hand some of the companies will then talk to you.
The work permit is around $2000 USD. You may have to bribe someone an equal amount to actually get them to process it. It is a two year permit. If you have just finished your CPL and have 2-300 hours they may just flat out deny you the permit since there are a lot of kenyans in the same boat.
You can avoid a work permit with the right company and out of country placements.
If you can get in you are in a great position. If nobody is willing to take you on try to convince them to let you work the ramp for a while and you will end up flying a fair bit and logging hours when they need somebody. Most kenyan pilots wont give you the time of day but a lot of the expats can be quite helpful. It will be an adventure...

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