Well said WWW particularly the last line. I don't think any FTO, anywhere are SkyGods. The RAF are pretty amazing, but any commercial FTO could also be with that budget! I also don't think you called Heli-port an idiot. He is not avoiding RYR because he thinks they're rubbish, rather because he doesn't want to pay for a TR.
The way I see it, anyone who trains up to fATPL needs to either have a way to fund a TR, or a way to fund an FI rating, or a way to fund 50 hours a year for currency as well as ME and IR renewals for several years. An FI rating is about 40% of a jet TR (except Ryanair's expensive one). 50 hours per annum and ME/IR renewals could equal the cost of a TR in a 3 years and the cost of an FI rating in less than two years.
I'd buy my own TR in a heart beat if I had a job offer, as it's only about £10K more than the next best option, but would get me significantly faster to the RHS and better pay than a newbie FI is likely to make. Barring such an offer, I'd start the FI rating about six months after finishing the fATPL if I didn't get an FO job. I wouldn't start the fATPL without the funds or leverage to do an SSTR.
Last edited by Adios; 8th Jun 2008 at 20:56.