I quite like the approach airline such as Royal Brunei take; cadets after training are sent on secondment to a regional turboprop company to build up experience in an airline environment and then after a couple of years transfer back to the company and onto their "shiney" jets.
The uproar which is happening at the moment, if you remove the paying for ratings and line training argument, is that effectively guys are skipping levels of the career ladder to get straight onto a jet, which is understandable, we all at some point considered the nice idea of flying short/longhaul shiney jets, but because they are doing that companies are paying them entry level pay, because they are entry level pilots, eroding terms and conditions of what was an upper level rung of the career ladder.
Sticking it out in smaller less paid jobs with lower terms and conditions is perfectly acceptable for many, because there was a great working atmosphere with excellent fun flying, hands on flying, and after a couple of years, you knew there would be an opportunity to move on to a better paid job.
The first rungs of the ladder will always be there its just they have moved further away from the ground. Earn 20,000 flying a turboprop enjoying yourself knowing youll get a double of triple pay rise in a few years, or jump straight onto a jet earn 20,000 miss out on valuable experience and MISS OUT ON FLYING THE PLANE NOT OPERATING IT and then by taking the jet route remove the opportunity to earn more money. What these guys dont realise is that there is nothing wrong with flying light twins or turboprops in fact its when your actually learning to be a pilot, are a pilot and not an operator. Like to see some of these new low experience guys fly these shiny jets with a u/s autopilot for four sectors with four NPAs. Those who have previously taken the traditional route, if they were to encounter a day such as that wouldnt find it unsettling, because they can go back to their previous experience.
If an airline must preselect then preselect from regional companies and arrange to back fill the regional companies with eager to learn cadets. Surely Oxford with all its contacts could set up a scheme between themselves and several "stepping stone" training airlines and easyjet.
FLYING A TURBOPROP IS FUN, isnt that why we all wanted to be a pilots, to FLY?
Last edited by PaulW; 9th January 2010 at 15:39.