Hey drugie.....
Shnee
Forget the Single Commercial check ride. Just do the multi instrument with the Commercial add-on. Commercial ticket is enough to get you in and its pretty straight forward to convert, only one written for the ATP....no credits from oz subjects!
The Great Lakes that was referred to is it sounds like Great Lakes Airlines in Cheyenne WY..... They suck increadibly but! they will launch your career pretty quickly. Not hiring at the mo!
Colgan are hiring at the moment.....you might just scrape in with 700 hours....although a mate of mine was hired there last month with 900, they seem to want 1000 with about 100 multi. Give chuck colgan a call....his number is on the web site!
Even now......in my opinion, if you have the right to work in the states......go for it. Yes there are a lot of pilots furloughed from the majors etc.......but as a general rule you are not competeing with them, as they cant afford to take a 15-35K a year job! if you can then I say its your best bet by A LONG WAY!
Let me know if you go, I will help you get in touch with the right people at a few of the low paying regionals.....no garuntees there but a phone number and a friendly face in a strange land can go a long way!
Please dont take this the wrong way Pilotusa.....it would seem that as a major airline pilot for 25 years, your view of what the entry level job scene actually is may be a little distorted! It kinda shows in the figures you quoted of starting pay at 25k......try 15k!
Anyway my point is Shnee.......qualify the advice you get by who gave it....including me. Dont take my word for it......do your homework. If you want some more people to talk to/email...then let me know. I can put you in touch with some of these 15k a year pilots and you can get a handle on what their take on the job scene is! The fact is there a still hundreds of jobs going in the US even now! just not at the majors. Try
aviation interviews dot com and find out what kind of hours people are getting hired with....what kind of recomendations you will need, who to send your resume to etc!
MJB