Good posts Topslide, and I completely agree about having the mentality of think it's bad, times by ten, then treble and that's about right.
I'm personally about to start on the CTC ICP scheme, I'm fully aware the economy is pretty bad at the moment, but as you said, the whole industry / economy is cyclical.
Just to clarify, from what I understand, the CTC ICP scheme treats you exactly as a 'wings' cadet, but instead of simply transferring to the ATP / AQC course at the end you have to either re-take the part you missed on initial assessment (mine was the maths by 2 q's) or if it is not even open then doing your MCC somewhere else, I'm assuming ill be popping up to Oxford for that.
I think the main thing about starting training now is that we're aware, we know that the illusive dream of a big shiny jet that says, BA, Ryanair, Easyjet may be in the distance for abit. And if you're not aware and have no backup, then you should seriously sit down for a minute and work out what you're going to do should it all go wrong.
I personally feel fairly positive about the whole situation, I think it is good training in a downturn, it will go up, it's a matter of when? Who's about at the end? Where the Pilots go from the Airlines that didn't make it. Then hopefully some of us freshies! (he says without having an ATPL f) should be able to get their foot on the ladder.
I think it's all about being realistic and being prepared to go back to what you did before flying for abit, but never giving up. I won't!
Best of luck to everyone!
Jim