Ohhhh boy. I can see that some folks see me wearing white sheets and burning crosses.
Rotorpilot wrote:
"In Toronto you can find taxi drivers with University Diplomas almost of any kind we can think of.
If a direct and immediately availability of jobs was a pre-requirement, than only brick layers, cement finishers, carpenters, and so on would come in... Not the ideal thing huh ?
BTW Einstein was an Immigrant and a refugee... and yes he taught a thing or two to the Americans"
So what is your point? We already have lots of underemployed flight instructors, airline pilots, bush pilots, etc. if your zeal is to "be taught a thing or two".
To set the record straight, I am neither a racist nor anti-immigration. In fact, my wife is a non-white immigrant and I have lived and flown in a number of other countries.
"Oh boy", you say. "What a hypocrite you are Panama Jack."
Not quite. In my wife''s home country I hold permanent resident status. I can live, work, and pay taxes there (just like Canada). I even have a University Degree and can drive a taxi there if I wanted to-- wooo hoooo!!!
What I cannot do, however, is hold a Commercial or ATP license. Why? Because the civil aviation regulations state that I must be a CITIZEN of that country to be able to participate in aviation. This was a rule written by the last dictator (back in the 1950''s) in an effort to keep the foreigners out and keep the (then) lucrative flying jobs for pilots coming out of the armed forces.
The situation of the country has diminished greatly in the last 30 years. Given the fact that it now happens to be a country with a basket-case economy (and sinking further), I am unwilling to renounce my Canadian citizenship. A few years ago they issued me a 1-year validation certificate and the local pilot community jumped down Civil Aviation''s throat, with some nastiness. Later, I worked there on an FAA license flying a diplomatic N-registered aircraft, again the same lobbying from pilots (less successful though-- hard to touch diplomatic stuff).
After that, I was on a diplomatic visa again flying in another country on behalf of a foreign government. I have the destinction of, not only being accused of stealing jobs and violating the civil aviation regulations by simply flying an aircraft there, but indeed, of violating the Constitution of the country!!! I even made it into the newspaper!
To this day I cannot fly for an airline in my wife''s country-- not because I am blackballed (always a posibility though) but because I cannot even get a license. Never mind that many of the pilots there have FAA licenses also.
My wish, in having TC and FAA work on the principle of reciprocity is to have other countries adjust their rules. Imagine, if pilots in other countries found that their FAA certificates could be suspended, I am sure that they would talk to their Civil Aviation Authorities to change this.
