Mile High Nutcase -
There are certain regions of Africa (a little place called Maun is very popular with prospective pilots) where aeroplanes are as common as cars here - I have it on reliable authority that the job market there is in fact busier now than it was one year ago, and tends not to move with the standard economical phugoid. There are many parts of the continent, stricken and isolated from the world, with no 'beaten track' accessibility so to speak. Flying is therefore a necessity, and I know of no less than three mission work (there are many more) companies operating in that region, always looking for pilots due the high turnover rate - experience helps, but there are many courses available specific to the kind of flying you would encounter there. It's mainly medical - the company I flew with in the past involved me flying to various local strips accompanied by a UK nurse, treating those with disease and having suffered various accidents. Unfortunately three weeks from finishing my time there, I suffered a fuel leak over dense jungle and the aeroplane was written off - my companion suffered a broken back, myself a dislocated shoulder and two broken fingers. We then spent 4 hours there before somebody picked us up. So there is an element of danger in this work, and the pressure on you as a pilot is immense. Which is perhaps why so many people steer clear of this path - although judging by the level of selfishness in so many pilots I see on here, perhaps that's a good thing.
Mister Geezer -
You are correct regarding those with the means to train towards a PPL - somebody who makes the plain statement 'people don't have money so they can't afford to fly, go figure' is being incredibly ignorant. The reason is, there are an infinite number of biases not accounted for - everybody's situation is different, and yes, as a statistic, there are less people who learn to fly during a recession, that's a fact. But it's not doomsday - some people are not affected by the economy, some people even gain from it. Here's an example - probably 15-20% of people I met whilst learning to fly were retired. Those people will continue to learn because they have allocated a certain amount of savings into achieving their licence, no matter what. They also tend to take a little longer in learning, and over a longer period, which is good for the school. Another 10-20% were of the 'money no longer matters to me because I am immensely rich and no longer part of the output economy' type, therefore unaffected.
The bottom line, in my opinion - people will ALWAYS want to learn to fly, yes, noticeably less during an economical recession, but we certainly won't be seeing any of the 'doomsday' effects some people tend to me mentioning. The problem with armchair economists is they are just that - too much time to allocate to 'thinking' about every little variable in the world's financial position, and in doing so create their own thought streams which vary massively from what's happening in the real world. If you hit a golfball 1 degree in the wrong direction, after 800 yards the error is considerable.
Get your FI - but only if you are expeditious enough and have the means and 'tie-breaking' allowances to move to the edge of the world in pursuit of work. As I've always said, the problem is not that there is a lack of jobs. It's finding them.
Just my opinion, but still food for thought.
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