Lemel I did work in the mining industry whilst I paid for my flying training.
I started as a "rig pig", and the mining game is just like the Aviation game. You do work on little rigs before they trust you with big rigs,they do send you overseas to be train on them as they are manufactured overseas. They realise your worth cos if you ph@k up the only rig in the southern hemisphere you will cost a lot of people a lot of money.........same as the aviation industry. Only difference I was never asked to pay for a cent in fact not even for food or grog or even phone calls,in fact I was provided with a company house and the company established an account at the supermarket..........all this 2 and a half hours from ML.
My point being that aviation is not the sacred cow many would try and say it is, we shouldn't have to pay for our training. Why don't we get HECS allowance etc etc. It will not change unless we all support each other(highly unlikely) or the demand dictates a change of motivation from our employers.
And yes I did wonder for quite a few years why I made the change to aviation considering the great T&C's I received elsewhere.................same answer as all of us..........I love flying.