Just curious about the people moaning about self-funded ratings.
I would argue that ANYONE who funds his/her initial training CPL/ME/IR is creating an unfair and degraded situation for the good folks who otherwise might've had full airline sponsorships available to them.
That's the argument right, that SSTRs undermine the people who went and became pilots and now watch newbies take "their" jobs through money?
Well... If nobody funded any training at all themselves what do you think airlines would be forced to do? Forgetting military pilots who by now get stuck with 10 year contracts when they start, the airlines would have to offer complete sponsorships to aspiring pilots. Naturally the selection process would be stern and fewer would get in but airlines would get theirs in the end.
So by funding your own training, effectively you're removing the sponsorships out there forcing the people who would've been good enough for sponsorships to also fund their own training. The reason we don't hear people screaming bloody murder about this is that a. nobody knows if they would've been selected for such a sponsorship and b. it's a much smaller group of people. The fact still remains though, that these people get shafted because YOU (and I) pay for training.
Which ultimately begs the question, who deserves to be a pilot?