Mercenary Pilot,
Your comments are not justified. A lot of good pilots nowadays need to pay for their type rating to get onto the job ladder and even in some cases pay for some line training.
Just because people pay for their ratings does'nt mean they are bad pilots or at the bottom of the barrel. If you don't pass an interview or sim ride does'nt make you a bad pilot.
In my opinion, a good pilot is someone who does'nt give up and keeps going inspite of all comments and negative attitudes towards them.
Some people are very lucky in getting sponsorship or being at the right place at the right time.
I myself, like a great deal of my friends are Ex-Military.
Because we paid for are ratings and had low commercial hours, does that mean we are bad pilots???
Would you feel that we would be a danger because of our low hours??
Have you ever experienced real danger?
Besides having a good CV and experience in avaition, the airlines wanted us to be type rated. Granted BA is different.
Yes, we paid for our ratings and got the job.
People have a choice, wait for something to fall in their lap or take the initative and increase the chances of success.
Not the way I wanted to do it, but the outcome was worth it.
I agree this is'nt how it should be. Airlines should be investing in their future and their pilots.
Bigfoot