knertius,
Your point is well made and acknowledges the fact that the bottom end of the pilot job market is a completely unregulated p1ss take. As a result, normally respectable airlines behave, well, badly, the T-shirt example being one particularly
gag (please God, don't tell me they were actually serious!). And, yes, paying for TRs is here to stay, period.
But pointer and RAFAT are also right in that people need to question whether they are prepared to be treated like this at the start, or each significant step, of their career. It's no different from your first day on the school playground. If you let yourself get kicked around now, then it will never stop. More scary is that you'll start
expecting to be kicked around.
I know that financial issues and a total passion for flying makes resistance hard, but the does the end really justify the means? Do you really think that the route to your dream job starts with you bending over quite so far?!
the Wings