To me it’s clear that modular students are being squeezed out at the moment in favour of whitetail cadets.
I’ve seen plenty of people from integrated schools get roles directly at tui, loganair, aurigny DHL when there are no active campaigns - where these candidates have exam and flight test failures compared to ‘straight a’ on the modular route. EasyJet also taking from
other schools where CAE can’t deliver. The BACF recruitment drive earlier in the year mainly recruited their inexperienced pilots straight from integrated schools, and from my understanding BA Euroflyer are taking a lot more whitetail over NQPP. The airlines also get a nice healthy kickback from the school when they take one of their cadets - how on earth can modular students compete with that?
I get it - these schools entire business model relies on getting their punters into the airlines and have teams dedicated to working with airlines for doing so.
Yes, there’s Ryanair but no good for those of us that have a UK licence.
But where can we modular students go to get experience - the traditional survey or light twin jobs either don’t exist or are looking for 300 hours plus. I don’t think there is anywhere at the moment, those that are recruiting recently (eg 2Excel) astronaut level selection and competition from those making a career out of that kind of flying.
Yes there is instructing. I spoke to my local
flying schools who’ve all got a que of instructors wanting to start, so the investment in the course hardly seems a smart decision unless you want to make a career out of it.
So where is the modular student to go? I’m not sure - maybe I’m missing something or my CV is just not good enough (I’m not convinced that is the case, I’m mid 30s, have a professional career in the airlines and am able to demonstrate the competencies in abundance).