@yap800: If you have spare cash for FI rating (plus the proper personality to teach someone) I believe its better to do it than just sit idle and wait for the airlines to respond (however recently a lot of people I know got quick response from the airlines and many have got a job at LOT). There are a lot of modular schools that offer job guarantee (if you pass all practical and theoretical exams ofc.) as instructor (the per block hour wage will be probably low in high cost nations (25 euro net per hour is little if renting a flat cost 1000 euro but if it cost 450 + everything is cheap then its a different story for example), in low cost nations its like 2-3x average salary depending upon flight hours done per month) if you complete your training at that school including the FI rating. I also heard about possibilities of being offered the cost of FI rating covered in exchange for a FI bond at schools (but then you have to pay if you get employed by an airline during the bond and break it).
From what I heard many airlines value the extra flight hours on CV. Plus I do actually believe flying with smaller aircraft is a nice experience to train hand flying skills (instructors do often have to recover different situations at least those who let the student fly&learn and do not correct with the controls immediately). In smaller aircraft you almost "feel more" of the weather conditions (and train more manually) than in a bigger one. I had the opportunity to hand fly (under supervision of the CFI) an Antonov AN-2 (amazing classic aircraft, more fun than the top modern 4 million USD aircraft) and Pilatus PC-12 NG and it actually felt like the manual effort to approach and land (not to mention correcting for wind/turbulence & thermal updrafts/downdrafts) is bigger in a smaller aircraft (trimming in bigger aircraft work much better). The Pilatus PC-12 NG felt almost like flying in a simulator (the forces of nature were not present on the yoke). Of course I have yet never been in control of the airline size aircraft so I have no idea if they are also "easier to hand fly & land" (plus most of the time from what I read its not allowed with hand flying other than takeoff and landing in most of the airlines).
As additional information some schools have also AOC or cooperate with companies that offer business flights and again you can for example be doing a class or type rating and flying passengers with a turboprop and that is definitely something to put on the CV I believe. There are lot of options to be flying and I believe the important thing is to use the opportunities to keep flying and do not sit and wait for the flying skills to be forgotten. No one who kept flying from what I know have ended with no airline job in the end (except those who for example found it more rewarding/enjoyable to fly a bizjet or become CRI/IRI for example).
Last edited by KT1988; 1st Oct 2019 at 23:37.