I liken the whole pay for endorsement thing to 'gethomeitis'. A lot of us have been in the game for a long time and are sick of GA. Once you get to that point where you can almost see the end you will do anything to make it home.
That’s why guys with offers from these companies are in a 'difficult' situation. Saying no, will be passing up the opportunity of progressing after such a hard slog to get there. Your right, that takes balls.
I also agree that the competition for jobs has swung into a competition for pilots. This is the main reason why I will no longer consider paying the endorsement fees they ask for, where as 12 months ago I might have. It is now sheer madness.
It is still early days yet. As this shortage deepens, operators will truly begin to get desperate for crew and have to resort to employing 'lowlife bludgers' like us who expect to be paid for training instead of the other way round!
But as you say, we could hasten his process (as we always could have) by collectively saying enough is enough. Yes, this is the best opportunity we have had to accomplish this but I still don't see it happening. It will only happen when there isn’t enough of the 'I have no balls' pilots’ left to fill the spots. Then the rest of us will get a look in, if we haven't already left for better jobs that is.
It's up to each individual GA pilot to decide which group he/she wants to be in. Seeing as we've all been through the same sh^t together, flown together, drunk together and laughed together, it would be nice if we could also stand together on an issue that we all fundamentally agree on anyway.
Not to pay.