Maximus
I should hope you regard flying an FR 73 as an apprenticeship. Flying metal this heavy is no apprenticeship
I’m not calling pilots of smaller/older aircraft apprentices. What I’m trying to imply is that, if you’re low houred and starting your first job I would say it is a little like an apprenticeship no matter if the aircraft is a PA28 or an A340. If you misunderstood this, I apologise.
Scroggs, I appreciate your honest and unemotional posts. I feel this is a very difficult subject to debate as pilots we want the best for our colleagues (present and future) and ourselves of course. I agree that it is totally wrong to pay for a sim check, interviews etc, but as mentioned it is a buyers market and as long as people are willing to pay then the airline in question isn’t going to stop applying the charge. One thing I think we may see is a potential pilot being put off by the spiralling cost of training compared against the decreasing pay scale. (That’s if certain FTO's stop promising jobs at the end of their overpriced courses!)
Ryanair is becoming a stepping-stone to the more prestigious airlines but maybe if these prestigious airlines stopped hoovering up all the experienced pilots and started their own cadet schemes we would definatly see a reduction in applications to FR. As long as MOL can replace pilots with fresh blood he’s not going to care!
I know a few experienced pilots who have become desperate enough to self fund a type rating and some of them got work through it. So for them it was a worthwhile thing to do, but I would only do it if I could safely afford it.
From what I can tell the cost of TR's are going down, the cost of an A320/ B737 being around the 20k mark, however please correct me if I’m wrong.
I hope this thread can stay balanced and objective
Regards
2 WINGS
