Northern Boy
Thanks for the reply, I must say I agree with many of your sentiments, especially regarding the "I want it now" brigade, but then I am biased because I too am doing things the piston then turboprop way, albeit still at entry level. I still have my (albeit badly paid) turboprop job and so I have not suffered redundancy like you, but what you say about experience preventing you from being hired strikes a chord because it affects me too in as much as I cannot progress my career, and will go no further within my current airline so I need out, and it seems there is none.
I do hope things are not as extreme as you think, and that we are not now part of a profession of part time hired summer hands only. My own belief is that market forces will, given time, change this practice, perhaps I am clutching at straws and yet still drowning. If the US can limit wannabes to minimum 1500 hours then why can't/shouldn't Europe? Also some more experienced (in aviation) chaps I talk to mention an old fashioned need for airlines to have a mix of experience, is this not still a requirement any more?
Anyway I wish you the best of luck, I find it somewhat scandalous that a pilot of your experience gets passed over in favour of low experience low cost wanabes, but as I say I think it is poor market forces causing this, and they have no shame.