Nevertheless, the company prefers to take shiny new cadets ( first rungers ) and train them to the RHS because they don't come laden down with other airlines SOPs and cultures.
That sounds like a reasonably good definition for something we used to call
experience. Once trained do these "new cadets" then become similarly "ladened down" by these recently learned SOP's and cultures? It is astonishing to think that people can perceive themselves as so restricted, that education and experience is seen as a burden rather than a benefit. Even if what is being stated has an element of truth to it, it is rather undermined by the commercial profit angle, than it would be if it were being advanced from a purely altruistic viewpoint. The advantages of a "wealth of experience" seem to have been corrupted into simply an advantage of wealth!
There was a thread on here recently about some new charter/leasing outfit that was recruiting new "cadets" to crew and even train new recruits for the plethora of low cost leasing opportunities that it felt was coming its way. In an advertisement that contained no telephone number, no address, and no names of company management, it asked applicants to participate if they had a PPL! If they couldn't satisfy this
strict criteria, they could apply if they had an NPPL! The only strict criteria they seemed to have established was the number that they wanted writing on the cheque these people would hand over. I am sure the motive was also to avoid being burderned by those ladened down with knowledge or experience. Indeed, it would have to be!
i seriously don't understand why there is always an attack on the younger pilots on this forum. we all understand that we are borrowing money from our parents to start training but it doesn't mean that we will forget about them as soon as we are on the ladder.
i don't take this advantage for granted because i know without my parents, i wouldn't have been at this stage of my career but when the opportunity of ryanair came along, why wouldn't i take it? i get to keep current, get paid, remain in the loop and most importantly i am learning the trade and gaining experience. at this moment in time, what is better? refusing to join ryanair and becoming rusty with little experience or join ryanair and become experienced?
To some extent your post answers your own question. It is a denial or what is happening, and an omission of any acknowledgment of what is being highlighted on this and similar threads. I am a parent of numerous children, including children who want to become commercial pilots. I am a senior pilot myself and would want to do everything I could to offer my own children the support, encouragement and opportunity to give them a head start. I am very well placed to to do so in respect of many of the aspects that might be perceived as advantageous to a potential candidate. However the advice I am giving my own children is the same advice I am giving here.
I have no agenda, or axe to grind with anybody. My participation on this forum is partly because of my own family situation, and my own background as an instructor. I want only the best things for this industry. I want to see flying schools thrive and prosper. It is in these schools that many of the real "first rung" jobs have, and always will, potentially exist. I want to see the continuation and modification of a standard that shows healthy discrimination (don't misinterpret the word,) in the standards required for advancement. I want to see airline careers that represent the top of the pyramid, in levels of attainment, and commensurate rewards. Careers that are really
careers, not just "jobs"! Even worse, that they are not limited duration, sales pitched, commercial marketing opportunities, intended to extract large sums of money from would be hopefulls on the back of vague promises of a "career" somewhere over the brow of a hill.
I am conscious of dissolving into metaphor, but nevertheless let me tell you how I see it.
I find myself working at the top of a very attractive tree, in what has been a long established and very leafy and pleasant copse. It has taken a long time to get to the upper branches, but for those with a head for heights, it is
the place to be. Were it not for the demands of my darling wife, my little darlings, and that Mr Darling in Downing Street, I would earn enough to buy myself a brand new Ferrari 430 every single year. These attractive trees have enticed a new batch of young climbers every year for as long as I can remember. The upper branches have slowly grown and only become vacant as my fellow occupants reach a certain age and move off to another copse by the seaside, or they expire and fall out of the tree.
A few years ago, fearful of the challenges being presented from the fast growing, genetically modified and high yielding forest, being planted in the nearby field, the custodians in suits, who manage, cultivate and sell the fruit of the trees in this copse, started to take some defensive action. Firstly they introduced an admission fee and some strict contractual stipulations on those who wanted to climb the tree. Then they put a barbed wire collar around the trunk about two thirds of the way up towards the canopy, so that those new climbers could only ever climb so far. At the top where the view is spectacular, we watched in some bemusement at what was going on below. Obviously we were relatively unaffected, although we did wonder what was happening. Then recently we noticed that our custodians in smart suits have retreated to a safe distance, and into the copse have arrived some men with chainsaws and pruning shears. We hope this is to tidy up and smarten the tree as promised, but despite the panoramic view we occupy, it has instilled a significant degree of nervousness. If this tree is pruned so that it no longer has a leafy canopy, where are those new climbers going to climb to? Already their aspirations have been curtailed, even though they seem to think that the recent barbed wire collars will be removed to allow them further progress. Now there is the sound of the chainsaws being started!
Look, I have no problem at all with people borrowing money from their parents or anybody else. I have no problem at all with glossy brochures, or anybody painting a rosy picture to sell anything. It happens in all walks of life, and part of the process of becoming an adult is learning to recognise and beware of such temptations. I wish people well in seeking to obtain a better future for themselves. However there needs to be a reality check. As I have already pointed out that reality is not an unfailing prediction of the future, or a complete understanding of what is happening. It is an assessment and observation being made from an advantageous viewpoint.
Undoubtably some people will continue to gamble on what is becoming a very elusive and significantly constrained career. I have no problem with that concept either. However I wonder how many people would play the lottery every week, if you had to buy £100,000 worth of tickets to stand a chance of winning? Even less I suspect if the potential prize money on offer was barely likely to cover the stake, let alone live an aspirational lifestyle. Much as I am pleased at the prospect of my children following in my footsteps, I have already told them that the pathway no longer leads to the same destination, and people have planted landmines in the intervening period. I may (as some would say on here) seem very negative, but I am simply saying be very careful. Listen to those who might be able to help, even if it is not what you want to hear. Open your eyes, and navigate this path with extreme caution!
Airlines are struggling and fighting tooth and nail to turn a profit from people who believe they can fly for 99 pence. Can you imagine how stupid they would be to ignore the market for people who are ready to pay tens of thousands of pounds for the opportunity or chance to sit in the right seat of one of their aircraft, with no commitments on either side, and a healthy supply of customers. They used to pay big money to applicants for these seats, now the applicants pay big money to the airline in order to sit there.
This nonsense will end after the first fatal accident involving a "pay to fly" FO.
Yes quite probably. I also note you said "involving" and not "caused by". The public wants to fly for 99p, but it still expects the latest technology, the best standards of maintenance, and the highest calibre of operating personel. On the balance of probablilities, it is inevitable that at some point there will be unpleasant images of some unfortunate event splashed across the pages of the Daily mail and repeated
ad nauseaum on Sky news. These are two of the publics main windows on the world. They seek instant answers, and just like lightning, they want the path of least resistance in obtaining answers for their impatient audience. This is the media that will be the catalyst for eventual change.
Where is the need for courses that enable cadets with barely 100 hours to qualify as airline pilots? This is not the first or second world war, where the demands of the nations survival requires raw recruits to be made operationaly ready in a matter of days. There is no shortage of commercial pilots. If structured, relevant, multi crew training is seen as a vital part of the entry level requirements for an airline pilot, why is not made an addition to a predetermined experience base, rather than a substitute for it? What is so special about the new courses being cobbled together in the home counties, Spain and Florida that overrides the need for an experience base? Where is the imperative? The answer of course is back to those cost reductions being clamoured for by the airline accountants. In order to drop the cost of employing a pilot, they must increase the supply by whatever means they can that doesn't involve them in their own additional costs. These new schemes are the answers to their prayers. They not only drive down costs at the oversupplied and self financing entry level, they have the additional benefits of driving down costs throughout much of the upward chain, and being a whole new profit centre in themselves!
In the United States, similarly profiled accidents, that may or may not have been a contributory factor, have stimulated the change that is now going through congress. An Airline Transport rating and 1500 hours minimum experience is set to become the new basic benchmark for this type of flying. It will happen here as well eventually, and probably not before time.
There is no difficulty whatsoever in finding suitable candidates to fill these seats from such a benchmark position. Of course the difficulty would be in finding enough who would do it for a low level of renumeration, or none at all, or would pay a company to sit there.