Wow, where to start on this subject, the basics as i see them. In the UK we have a very niche market of people who want to fly and therefore a small amount of people required to teach them. Untill recently PPL holders could carry out the instruction at weekends to pay for their flying and supplement their income, now the instructor must have a CPL, apart from the few instructing under "grandfather rights", this pushes up the cost to the instructor to become qualified.
He is now a CPL holder and wants to earn a living flying helicopters, but who is going to pay the wage that people expect to earn as a professional pilot. You cannot pass this on to the student otherwise you alienate all but the very rich.
With helicopters the majority of the work is single pilot and you require in excess of 1000 hours before you can become usable by any operator, unless you get a FO job on the N. sea, and these are non-existant at the moment.
How do you get from a 200 hour new CPL to getting that police/air ambulance job that people want, you must instruct and unfortunatley accept that the amount of money paid per hour is distributed to DOC,s on the aircraft, Company overheads, Profit for the owner, and then something for the instructor.
It is a hard industry to gain access too and the routes are few, military or civil, selection and testing or immense determination to put yourself in hoc for huge amounts to gain your licence.
Next time you hear university students complaing about their £12000 debt for 3 years drinking then you can smirk at their easy life.
I can't figure out if i've gone off message but the words just flowed out of me.
