Dear Phyk / Ben,
the cadetship has always been about
:
- creating a short term fix to a long term problem (Unfortunately the poor standards of the cadets and the inability to ever get command has turned it into a 'Long Term fix' designed for an unsolvable problem)
- churning capital to get the AAPA off the ground and appease shareholders with an initial influx of hoodwinked REX cadets (remember when the initial cadets were promised command within 3 years during their interview?)
- after the AAPA is on its feet, cadets from overseas (ie China) will continue to fund the school (making shareholders happy again)
- creating an 'airline' ( I use the word airline loosely here) with very experienced career REX Captains who never thought of leaving and cheap labour in the right hand seat , unfortunately almost all of these Captains are now sending applications anywhere they can as well....I wonder why
I could rant on alot more about the cadetship, and mind you, I have acquaintances (or should I proudly say "colleagues"?) who are at various stages of the cadetship all the way through to those online, so I know intimately what goes on at the AAPA....but I won't rant anymore. Like it has been said before, I'll just be casting pearls.
Do not be surprised that the cadetship could soon be put on hold when the first Chinese airline cadets (the real airlines) start in April or thereabouts, for reasons quite obvious. And for those who still can't get it
, the cadetship has done what REX needed it to do for them (sort of), and now REX has got to stop the Monster they created from growing any bigger, or angrier ( heard of the cadet/s trying to 'corner' the CP recently to remind and question him of the 'promise' made about ICUS/Command yet?, I'm sure you have
).
Also, as a REX cadet, it is more likely that V Aus will give you ANOTHER dead-end job as an SO rather than REX letting you loose in a B1900, Chieftain or B350 anytime soon.
And if you want a nice gloss over of how great a job being a B777 SO on $59k+allowances a year and watching others fly an aeroplane for at least 3 years, go talk to the silly bloke/FO with the teapot hanging from his waist (you know who). He is telling the whole of REX how great the position is, that he has an interview with them and how excited he is to have a chance to hop over to VB in a few years after gaining all that International experience with V Aus, and on top of that he'll be earning $10k more than what he is getting at REX and blah blah blah. 
Now leave Krusty alone, he's spending too much time here casting pearls instead of cleaning his swimming pool.