Advice on Path to the left seat.
Greetings, Long time listener, first time caller.
So after getting buzzed by a cluster of spitfires and a few bi-planes on a fishing trip a few weeks back, an old neural pathway has been running overtime in my head. Given I'm no longer the pock faced, bright eyed, testosterone fuelled champ I once was approaching a change in career is something that I have approached with some care however; A few simulator and trial flight experiences later and my wife has compared my newly rekindled obsession to that of an ice addict.
Many hours of research later I decided to try my hand at the Virgin Pilot ab-initio cadet-ship, I was quietly confident, knowing full well there is a very high application rate for minimal positions. Though how great is that opportunity? I mean they pay you allowances while you train for 54 weeks and then give you a job at the end of it! compared to Rex's cadetship with whom you cover all costs yourself and at the end of the training you MAY be offered a position, in which you are bound for 7 years! Or emirates training where you are required to pay $250,000 USD for the training. It seems to good to be true. Well yes, it is to good to be true. My application was rejected this morning. I knew my weakest point would be the initial stage of recruitment. My resume has a big fat zilch to do with aviation, 10 years working in the arts/media and my tertiary education maxes out at the diploma level (Though I am qualified for an advanced diploma with RPL.) I'm sure I would have scored well in group exercises and interviews and I have been putting in 3-4 hours of aptitude and general aviation study in a day to brush up on skills I haven't used in 13 years.
Well what would be the fun of a career change without some adversity?
So I am wondering what is the next step? Ideally the goal is get employed by one of the major carriers, I've spent my life as a freelancer so i'm fatigued with the constant uncertainty of employment making an airline a very attractive proposition somewhere I can get my foot in the door and spent some time working my way up. Besides that I'm not sure I could justify my marriage if I was to disappear to the bush for 18 months just to get some hours in while only being able to supply a pittance to pay the rent.
So..
Are there any other ab-initio cadetships besides REX and Virgin in Aus that I could investigate?
If I were to train myself, are there any flight training schools that feed students into the airlines or rather that airlines actively recruit from?
Do airlines hire FO or SO's with frozen ATPL's and minimal flight hours?
Are there any particular flights schools that are geared toward airlines as opposed to GA in Sydney?
There seems to be quite a lot of variation in the fee's between institutions is this indicative of the quality of the schools in anyway?
I appreciate your wisdom on these matters.