Stop wasting your time and energy on these posts and put those problem solving, team building, survival etc. etc. skills that you have gained from contract flying/bush flying etc. to good use!
Its a cruel cruel tough world out there and you will know this if you live in SA (just barely) and work in ...take your pick; Angola, Sudan, Afghanistan/Paki, DRC and various other gems that call themselves democracies.
I was a contract pilot for almost 4 years. Before that I did my time as a jump pilot, fire spotter pilot etc in the singles.
I was not advantaged, nor was I black etc. Just someone who very badly wanted to end up in the driver's seat at the pointed end of a shiny big jet.
Very quickly learnt that the harping and whining doesn't help. Also had a f-ed up interview with the honourable national carrier and left shattered after being insulted by an oxygen thief who apparently must be able to walk on water- what a skygod!
Now I am laughing my head off because I am privileged to work for one of the worlds number one airlines. Its not perfect, but its WAAAAAAY WAAAAY better than the joke that I aspired to work for in my earlier days as a proud patriotic SA citizen. Sad that a once great enterprise has been all but destroyed - sympathies to the good people who remain there and were not the architects of current policy.
My advice. Forget about the losers in SA that are squeezing you out. They have made it clear that they don't want you. Don't waste your time. Clam up and start mailing those CVs/resumes etc. off at weekly intervals to foreign operators. Thats what I did. Worked for me. Persistence does pay off. There ARE so called CONTRACT PILOTS getting hired by the likes of GULF AIR and CATHAY. Just be sure when you get the call that you have honestly put in the prep for the interview.
By the way, best you enjoy those hours in the "BUSH" doing some real flying, because once you join an airline, the fun is over (at least from a flying point of view). You will find yourself longing for the rush of that approach into Faizabad between the mountains, BUT not the cold river water shower in Haumbo, nor the Typhoid in Burundi!
Ok, I am off my soap box now! Apologies to anyone I offend.
