That was an excellent read Roj, thank you for taking the time to write that. And what an interesting story.
Definitely a reality check; if I stepped down now to wait it out I would be trying to jump back in the pool and compete with a LOT more guys with 2500 hours and plenty of multi to go with it when that time comes. However you did mention that you yourself and a lot of others from the bush struggled to get work initially when hiring started, due to over-experience I imagine? 4000-5000 TT and a few thousand multi sure does sound over-experienced in that regard, compared to 2 year instructors. Though I'm not at all interested in airlines, so surely the more experience the better in some other sectors i.e. aeromedical, corporate?