"Any prospective student pilot could now go to the US and take an FAA license , get some hours , pay for a cheap non JAA type rating and get a job in Europe"
ME109, I think your idea of getting your training, ratings and licenses in the states is ill informed. What you suggest would take yrs to accomplish. i should know I had to do it. Despite what you hear in the UK or ireland, FAA flight training standards are very tough. The theory side is more difficult in europe i totally agree, but often, the flying side is far more difficult with the FAA. you have to master more manouvers that are not taught back home. No one in their right mind would employ someone with 200-250 hrs in canada or america on to an ATR-42 never mind a boeing or airbus!!! you would still be considered far too green!! one cannot get a look in at regionals until they have at least 800hrs with 200 multi. its even higher in canada!!! how long do you think it would take a person to go to the states, get a pvt then IR then cpl then multi ir cpl, then cfi, cfii and an mei. then, build up 250 multi hrs and 1000 total, and then try and get a regional job? perhaps, after you earn a pittence over the yrs you get a type rating and get 100-500hrs+ on said type rating. I will tell you...it takes YEARS!!!!!! and lots of heartache and luck along the way!! dont believe all the JAA hype, if it was such a sucessful system there would be more qualified pilots about with the necessary hrs and experiance the airlines need to hire them. its precisely because the JAA schools fall short on giving students flying hrs/experience that we are in this mess. they are desigened to place 5% of graduates in cockpits. problem is there are now more planes than pilots...whos going to fly them??? johnny 200hrs in a cessan 150???? yeah right!
Its the flightschools and their money making rackets that you should be complainig about not the IAA. who do you think wrote the syllabus/rules and regs for the CAA/JAA? the schools write the rules to suit themselves to stop people from going abroad and the JAA endorses it cause of the money they make from exams. It worked fine when the airlines weren't hiring after 9/11. now the recovery is in full swing and the airlines now need more bodies to fly their new orders...whopps...the jaa made it so hard and expensive that the system only spate out out qualified people in dribs and drabs... with no experience...now they need 100s. the IAA are being sensible and using common sense to solve the situation, only time will see if the pig-headed arrogant CAA will follow suit..I doubt it.
