I think mentoring is a great idea. When I was a wannabe I was extremely lucky to know a handful of people already flying for various companies, from brand new turbo prop FOs to Training Captains in the major airlines. It was invaluable and I cannot imagine trying to get through not knowing any working pilots. I would be more than happy to volunteer to be a mentor.
I think the money would be well spent on aptitude testing/ interviewing of pilots. I would recommend getting together with an organisation, GAPAN or whoever, who have previous knowledge/ experience in this field to come up with a pprune test. I think it would be best to test those who already have a PPL.
Personally I think the ATP Academy has the right idea and many lessons could be learned there. Perhaps they could be involved at some level, I know they have been involved with training some ab-initio cadets in Germany I think.
I think it would be a good idea to use their invaluable experience and advice.
I think a registration fee would be a good way to go. But you'll need to be able to accept cards, or no-one will bother sending cheques in.
Perhaps we could also have a fund available for a loan-scholarship. That is, it is awarded to someone worthy but is to be paid back when that person has a job.
I would be happy to run a mentoring scheme, matching wannabes with suitable mentors.
[This message has been edited by Grandad Flyer (edited 12 June 2000).]