Most of the MAF pilots I met in Australia spent all their waking hours plotting their escape, it's a poverty trap.
In Australia there's a thing called The Award, a piece of legislation that dictates the minimum wage for every conceivable job with add-ons for extra qualifications. This dictated A$XX,XXX for a SE VFR pilot on aircraft below 5700kg, plus A$X,XXX for a twin, plus A$X,XXX if flying IFR etc etc. MAF neatly ignored the whole thing (being a Godbothering charity they seemed to think this made it ok) and paid bare subsistence salaries. Sure, they provided accomodation (shared) but the pay was so low that anyone with a bare licence had no hope of funding their next step-up.
MAF also used its charity status to undercut other operators while conducting charter ops....err, I mean spreading The Word. The blackfellas thought the whole thing a joke. "Yowie whitebloke. We bin like plying wid you, you a funny bastard eh? But we bin plying wid dem happy clappies and we bin got more dollahs for grog eh?". They owned the airstrip at one community which would always be declared 'Closed Due Wx' but not until their own aircraft had managed to land and take off each day. Clearly the Lord moves in mysterious ways, seemingly in a C402.
Add to these shennanigans the fact that I narrowly avoided a mid-air twice with their aircraft while I was IFR in intermittent IMC and they were VFR yet flying in cloud at IFR levels might have something to do with my somewhat cynical view of the MAF circus. The interview, as you probably know, focusses more on your knowledge of the Bible than your flying abilities which probably explains the near misses.
Good luck, brother.
Edit: Just noticed. This was my 1,666th post
