Another lamb to the slaughter...
Hi Scroggs,
I can't help but slightly disagree with the above. Firstly I know you have a great deal of experience in aviation and I respect that, and part of the above is you trying to warn people.
However it is also very easy for someone in your position who has probably never had to pay for training being Ex RAF / and now Virgin. That is great and very fortunate for you, but things have changed now and not just in Aviation. Can you honestly say that had things been different that you would not have paid for qualifications to further your career if it was the only option open to you?
I'm trying to make the point that everyone is different and in different circumstances. Me I am 32, I left an established career like so many do to gain my ATPL. Now I have an assessment with FR next week for FO/Cadet and i feel bl**dy fortunate to even have that, and only do because I know a TRTO with them.
Now if I am successful, yes it P*sess me off that I will have to pay out so much money, but I can look far enough ahead to know that I will be way more marketable in just 18/24 months, with 1,800hrs on a heavy jet than if I sit at home and say I am not paying for a rating.
Or I could as you have recently suggested on another post go and spend £6k on an instructors rating and earn less than £12k a year (great investment! Plus I can not live on that) yes I would gain single engine instructional time which is mostly useless as far as the airlines are concerned, to then 18/24 months down the line and MORE in debt realise the industry has not and will not change and go out and pay for a Jet/TP rating. I just think sometimes people should have a greater understanding that for some it is the best / only option if you have a job offer at the end of it.
How many people do you fly with every week who spent 3-5 yrs at FR and are now in the right hand seat of an A340, I am guessing shed loads, but in the big picture it got them to where they want to be, and not slaughtered!
Scroggs I hope you dont take offense to the above comments.
I would also like to make the point it is us (newly qualified pilots) who are being forced into entering the industry by paying for ratings, something I feel in no way is our fault. How can it be when we have had no influence in an industry we have never been employed in before!
Please please others reading this DO NOT think that I am knocking FI or people who fly TP before jets I AM NOT! Infact I would bite a TP operators arm off if any of them would respond to sent CV's.
I just wanted to give another opinion of someone trying to get into this very strange industry, I hope I have done so without causing offense.
All the best which ever way you choose to do it,
Dan