I'll second that Zippy on both accounts.
Is this the way things are moving? 6 month contracts here there and everywhere for the rest of our careers.
If it is I am writing off my costs, there is no way I want that kind of life for my future family. Anyone who does is selfish. I also don't think I or anyone else would be particuarly safe with that level of inconsistency throughout. There is only so much a text book can teach you and only so much a 'check' can find.
It's amazing, the FTOs and the airline management are responsible for all of the mess, and, pilots, cabin crew and engineers - all the specifically, usefully qualified people, suffer. Load factors are generally very good from what I hear from friends more fortunate. The airlines management have over ordered, over paid, mis-judged and under sold and yet they still keep their jobs and pay. The problem for us is too many lemmings with an unhealthy disrespect for money and a selfish attitude in that they are willing to ditch everyone and everything just so that they can 'love their job'. What lies ahead cannot be drawn from the past - guaranteed. Really think about the instability a 6 month contract once a year is going to have on any kind of family life. Try getting a mortgage on that basis. Try having a nice Christmas over the 'less busy period'. OOORRR of course you can go and work in Vietnam or Nigeria for the other 6 months and ditch or affect your family again. Then maybe one day, if you have the resilience and brass ones to stick out you may get something a little firmer, perhaps for the last 15 years of your life. It is insane, people are missing the point of life. Experience is priceless in this industry. Introducing the flexicrew scheme has set a ruinous road for the future of pilots starting out. Sure it may well work for older pilots looking to wind down, it may in fact work very well. But For us at the beginning of careers it spells a life of worry, instability and distraction.