Beaker,
Thanks for the advice, I've definitely thought about how unsafe it would be (job security-wise) to go straight from school to training especially with a big ~50k loan over my head!
a fallback skill/trade would be sensible
Do you think something like airport ops or aerospace engineering is as unstable as the piloting market? After all fedex have to deliver their parcels somehow. I've thought about having a plan B job that's still related to aviation so I would have a good passion for it. A few months ago the head software engineer at Leonardo (one of the manufacturers of the Eurofighter Typhoon, their offices in Edinburgh design radar tech) gave a brief talk at my school and I think that it's a fairly decent plan B/initial job. He told us that once people join Leonardo they often stay there for their whole working lives and I believe it. I'm passionate about computing science also and I think it be a decent job to write code that eventually gets put in a fighter jet
electrician or plumber
As I mentioned above I'm considering doing a degree possibly in electrical engineering, I've looked at electrician/tradesman as a career option also. However I'm keeping in mind that at least for the first few years any jobs I invest my time in are mostly a means to an end to fund my training. It's definitely food for thought.