Firstly we must differentiate the difference between a “return of service bond” and “paying for a rating”.
A return of service bond is either one of two things,
A) The company pays for your rating and in return you guarantee a number of years service. If you leave early you are responsible for a percentage of the outstanding amount.
B) You pay for the rating with the guarantee of employment on FULL fo salary and the company reimburses you the cost of the rating over a time period.
Paying for a rating is simply this.
You fork out your hard earnt $$$ (or generally a relatives) and pay for a type rating for a particular aircraft, with no guarantee of a job and no salary! This comes in two forms
A) Not Cheap - Rating Only.
B) Extremely Not Cheap - Rating with a couple hundred hours.
Paying for a rating WHY?
Have a read of the excellent thread in Terms and Endearment about the training crunch.
Here
http://www.pprune.com/forums/showthr...5&pagenumber=1
Now think of this.
1) Just because you have a rating does not mean you are entitled to a job, it simply means that an airline does not have to pay for a full type rating course. You will do an abbreviated course so that you fly the aircraft in the manner that a particular company likes.
(for the newbies this means that some company’s have different procedures for flying the exact same aircraft. Company A may require you to be fully established on the approach by X miles in the landing configuration even though the day is CAVOK. Company B may allow its pilots to conduct a visual approach to the same airport in the same conditions and hence track shorten by 20 odd miles, (at 3 miles a minute that’s almost 7 minutes = $$$)
They are still going to have to invest in you, be it additional training, super nummary safety pilots, whatever they are still spending money on you. Nothing is for free.
2) If you have a type rating on a B737 what good is for an airline operating A320’s, F-all. It means that the recruiters have found a sucker willing to spend their own money!
It means that if you do get hired, you will now have two ratings to pay off!
3) A regional airline will look at guys who have paid for a jet type rating and say….
“why should we hire this guy because the moment that there is more movement we will see him off to the bigger boys club….. too risky for us to hire him!”
Essentially you are limiting your opportunities, why do you think a well known turboprop operator from the south “generally” I WILL SAY IT AGAIN “generally” take a lot of guy fresh out of school?? But the better question is why do the crews generally run given the first opportunity to get out?
4) If the likes of FR are advertising that we are still looking for pilots, apply and send us your £50, why then did they just drop the requirement for type rated guys WITH hours on type to pay the £50?
Are they finding it hard to find people?
Are they still finding suckers to pay the £50 and help pay MOL’s exponential solicitors and barristers bills?
Answers YES & YES I beg to argue.
Another case in point is an airline out there that is advertising “we are looking for crew” you contact them meet the entry requirements but then….. Sorry we don’t have a position for you, however if you would like to spend ££$$€€ on one of our type rating courses you may (MAY) be offered a position. WTF! You are simply subsidising their operation.
Funnily enough that the courses in the UK are generally 30% more expensive than on the continent… now why would that be?
What paying for a type rating really does.
Do the likes of the majors, even some of the not so majors make you fork out for your own rating… NO. Have all the majors been struggling over the past few years, generally yes.
Now how many newbies have sent out the 10 million resume’s and never got a response from some? But generally the ones that have responded are bigger carriers, those that have an IN HOUSE recruitment facility.
Now the likes of most EU majors have been feeling the pinch on their continental networks, Long haul is still supporting the short haul, but short haul is essential to get passengers to their final destination and feed the LH business.
The reason short haul has been feeling the pinch is the popularity of the LoCo’s. Hey I too can’t afford to shell out big bucks when I can jump a LoCo at one tenth the cost in some cases so they do have a point.
So then how do the LoCo’s make money if they operate exactly the same aircraft as big brother?
Its quite simple really, you subsidise them! And yes I mean YOU. How?
Indirectly.
Regional airports apply to the government or their local constituency for funds to improve the local airport. The local airport or authority also my subsidise the flights coming in and out. These are your taxes at work, (if you are not working, then its your parents) either way YOU are subsidising the LoCo’s
Your tax dollar in some ways helps subsidise the building of aircraft (in the EU) this subsidy can then be passed on to an airline who would like to buy a LARGE number of jets. This subsidy is generally not direct but factored into the manufactures production or development cost.
Directly.
You are paying for a type rating.
You are paying for an application and or screening.
You are not being paid a viable salary for the first X months of employment
You are not being paid a salary at all, you only get the hours.
Summary,
If you did pay for your rating, and you did not earn a salary, how did you afford to live? Are you in fact being subsidised by some one else to subsidise an airline?
Do you think that is fair?
Do you think that the crew of a ship / train / truck are suckered into paying for a rating? Yes that will be one QE2 rating thank you!
Question: You have handed over a lot of money, what was your motivation?
Money / Prestige / Lifestyle?
Do you really think any of the above exists in the same abundance as it did in the glory days of aviation.
The money has been getting progressively worse across the board, T&C’s are being eroded in the allowances, duties, pensions, travel benefits (try getting a staff ticket somewhere good in summer).
Prestige, humm interesting one that, how do you define that. There is no glamour at 4 in the morning is what I was told once and it applies to many situations. Our industry is one. Once we were respected in our uniform, crews were treated with dignity for our profession, we are the ones who have done the 6 month checks, have the medicals, and worked all hours. Now the guy that drives bus to the plane makes more than the FO!
Lifestyle, another interesting point. Is it really a lifestyle when you are too tired to do anything on your day off. Is it a lifestyle when you have a second job to help pay the bills because you aren’t earning a salary?
On BBC world the other day they had show on slavery…. Some of the points that qualify a job as slavery can be found right here in our industry!
The Future?
I don’t have a crystal ball, nobody does. A couple years ago I was having dinner with a friend in the oil industry, he say that if oil reached $50 a barrel this decade he’d eat his hat. A couple months ago we BBQ’d him one, apparently greasy cotton tastes like $h!t.
But we are seeing things move, there is progression, and as others have pointed out, infrastructure development is at an all time high, airlines are cancelling flights because of a lack of crew, and now some are having to look at the way they recruit because they cant get the right people. These are facts.
This may or may not sway some of the aspiring pilots out there, if you are in this game for the money/glamour/lifestyle, become a corporate banker, because the moneys shrinking, girls want a guy whose home at night & if you want advanced aging through disrupted sleep patterns and environment then sure come on join the party.