Beak, I get the impression that we are going round in circles here? Possibly understandable when strong opinions and; dare to say it, some assumptions are being voiced.
First of all, I didn't publish my eventual route to the unholy of unholies in order to give myself any justification. I did it to show what actually happened when things were considered to be quite bouyant in terms of jobs. I waited just over a year before starting with Ryanair. Putting this into perspective, a year is nothing. A training buddy of mine has only recently received a job offer with a well regarded UK TP operator. He waited over two and a half years without a sniff of anything substantial. Others will wait double that, treble that. Many hundreds will never get a job. That's the cold hard fact of it. Patience is completely exhausted. Whatever virtues they posess will be applied elsewhere.
To balance this out a bit, I show agreement to the fact that there are people who happily throw vast sums of cash at something in order to get the desired result. Ryanair are today's perpetrator. However I remember other arguements with similar noises to this one. If we stick to the low houred pilot and that elusive first job, then once upon a time it was integrated courses that were spawn of all evils. Modular students and those embarking upon the traditional self improvement route couldn't get jobs. Yet Ollie, Toby and James (the most common names of cadets from Oxford on FR TR courses I might add) were walking into the likes of BA, bmi, Jet2, easyJet etc with less than 200 hours total time! They were paying way over the odds for a CPL/IR and people were pointing the finger at them. These people were regarded as impatient, spoilt que jumpers who had no respect for the system. They were setting a benchmark to all future trainees. Cash is the answer!
Same thing goes with the SSTR and Line Training package. It left many by the wayside and caused heated debate after debate. Yet MyTravel (now Thomas Cook), bmi, Astraeus and easyJet all entertained it. I have come across many people who have achieved employment through it. It sends out the same rotten message and sets the level of expectation for future generations. And by the way both examples have consequences for the future of airline pilots.
You mention people like Lucair84 splashing the cash like a pilot equivalent of Paris Hilton on Rodeo Drive. Ryanair certainly have their fair few of these characters. But to say that the majoirty of people who go to Ryanair are like this is baseless. There are many who have sacrificed a lot or indeed have waited their time. Others didn't. I met many during my TR course a few summers ago. Every one completely naive and wet behind the ears. Yet they had nothing to compare Ryanair to and felt what they were doing was right. Every one was from an integrated background and I personally believed that they were feeling certain pressures. Course mates were off to BA, Lufthansa and KLM. They sniggered at little Dicky who went off to Air Southwest on the Dash. They were appauled that I came directly from a FIC.
You talk about empolyers wanting you for the skills that you attained during training. In my opinion they only want you because you are cheap and in some cases they can mould you into something that they eventually need. In Ryanair's case add the something that they can make money from aspect. Pilots will never have the upper hand again because the industry has become too small for them. It's a buyers market and the airline is the buyer. This won't change until this long awaited global pilot shortage occurs. I'm sure it's just around the corner. Just follow the yellow brick road, somewhere under a rainbow, far far away, in never-never land!
Last edited by Callsign Kilo; 16th Dec 2009 at 15:18.