> Within my previous thread "Advise on PPL Training" someone suggested flight training in the states.
>
> This has raised my curiosity some what, since I've always wanted to travel to Florida to see a large Rocket launch down at the cape.
>
> I would love to do a full time course overseas, but I do hope to fit in ok @ Tyabb or Moorabbin as a recreational flyer. It would be nice to travel back to the states in future and do some cross country flying provided I get the FAA license and convert to JAA for here.
>
> Whats peoples opinions on this, good or bad idea?

> On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:33:21 +1000, veritas xxxxx.com> wrote:
>

>> When I did my course, I was planning on going to work for Continental Airlines
>> in Laos (before the movie) - the actual operator depicted as 'Air America' in
>> the movie of the same name. Air America (CIA) operated under that name in
>> Vietnam - not Laos.

>
> Huh? Air America operated in Laos, Cambodia, Burma, ROC, Thailand and
> Japan, amongst other places. Continental Air Services (CASI)(not
> Airlines) operated in Laos as a contractor to Continental Airlines,
> but unlike CASI were not a CIA propriety, though it was formed in
> response to a request from the US government to Continental to take
> over Bird & Sons Laos operations as a proper civil operator.
>
> So CASI weren't CIA, and Air America operated in Laos on CIA and
> normal civil operations.
>
> The following declassified CIA article from "studies in intelligence"
> elaborates on Air America in Laos. It also fails to mention CASI as a ...

>
> If you wish to remain misinformed that is your pejorative. For an
> airline that didn't operate in Laos, Air America lost a remarkable
> number of employees killed there....
>
> If you meant Ed Dearborn, he was an Air America (not CASI) employee in
> Laos. The last I heard of him was in the nineties with MEGA oil in
> Azerbaijan, setting up a civil airline, speculated by some to have a
> not coincidental resemblance to Air America. He also set up a
> clandestine air force for the Contras in Nicaragua. If he's dead, I'm
> sorry to hear it.
>
> No one by the name of Dearbourne is recorded as having held an FAA
> pilot certificate, student pilot certificate or even a medical since
> 1945.

> On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:34:12 +1000, veritas coldmail.com>
> wrote:
>

>> 'one does not ask to see a potential empoyer's personal licences'
>>
>> ...and I add:
>> It is possible that Mr D may well have been hiring for both CIA and
>> Continental

>
> I'd say more than possible - Dearborn did hire for both AA and CASI
> and worked for both - in Laos. Did you have an issue with not having
> 2,000 hours when you applied?

>

>> - after all, it was the was the same incestuous economy divided
>> only by name and pilot nationality.

>

> Paul Saccani wrote:

>> On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:34:12 +1000, veritas coldmail.com>
>> wrote:

>

>>> 'one does not ask to see a potential empoyer's personal licences'

>

>>> ...and I add:
>>> It is possible that Mr D may well have been hiring for both CIA and
>>> Continental

>

>> I'd say more than possible - Dearborn did hire for both AA and CASI
>> and worked for both - in Laos.  Did you have an issue with not having
>> 2,000 hours when you applied?

>
> No Paul, that wasn't an issue - by then I had well in excess of that in F27
> and V700 time.
>
>
> ...

> On Sep 6, 7:05 am, veritas coldmail.com> wrote:

>> Paul Saccani wrote:

>>> On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:34:12 +1000, veritas coldmail.com>
>>> wrote:

>>>> 'one does not ask to see a potential empoyer's personal licences'
>>>> ...and I add:
>>>> It is possible that Mr D may well have been hiring for both CIA and
>>>> Continental

>>> I'd say more than possible - Dearborn did hire for both AA and CASI
>>> and worked for both - in Laos. Did you have an issue with not having
>>> 2,000 hours when you applied?

>> No Paul, that wasn't an issue - by then I had well in excess of that in F27
>> and V700 time.
>>
>>
>>

>>>> - after all, it was the was the same incestuous economy divided
>>>> only by name and pilot nationality.

> ...

>
> You shouldn't have a recollection of this. Pacific Corporation (the
> renamed Airdale corporation) was the Delaware* that owned Air
> America/CAT, Intermountain Airlines, Seaboard-World Services, Southern
> Air Transport and Actus Technology. All except the last being very
> profitable covert CIA airlines. It was dissolved in 1979.
>
> Indications are that currently active proprieties and fronts include
> Tepper Aviation, Crestview Aerospace, Business Focus Sdn. Bhd, Devon
> Holding and Leasing, Steven Express Leasing, Kramer Investment, Rapid
> Air Transport, CIAO, Crestwell Aerospace, Evergreen International and
> Path Corporation. I could go on - there are an awful lot of them...
> But these are the low tier. There are modern equivalents of Pacific
> Corp...

> Pits wrote:

>> On Sep 6, 7:05 am, veritas coldmail.com> wrote:

>>> Paul Saccani wrote:

>>>> On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:34:12 +1000, veritas coldmail.com>
>>>> wrote:

>>>>> 'one does not ask to see a potential empoyer's personal licences'
>>>>> ...and I add:
>>>>> It is possible that Mr D may well have been hiring for both CIA and
>>>>> Continental

>>>> I'd say more than possible - Dearborn did hire for both AA and CASI
>>>> and worked for both - in Laos.  Did you have an issue with not having
>>>> 2,000 hours when you applied?

>>> No Paul, that wasn't an issue - by then I had well in excess of that in F27
>>> and V700 time.

>

>>>>> - after all, it was the was the same incestuous economy divided
>>>>> only by name and pilot nationality.

>

>>  Phew ! ...