I'll batten down the hatches and take the flack. I maybe one of these ex bmi, parc SFOs who have recently joined easy on a flexi-contract this summer with a permanent position from November. I am certainly not paying to fly in fact quite the opposite. My next roster I have 90+ hours at £67 per hour paid to me, with a self employed tax of at least 75% retention of salary. I don't have a calculator but that isn't that bad as long as the rest of the summer is like that. I don't like this deal as it has no solid guarantees that a permanent position brings, but this keeps a roof over my head whilst I examine all options open to me.
I have to say that in this day and age having a full ATPL with a few thousand hours on type and the right contacts in the industy does open doors slightly, but this option was the only one available to me and times have changed since 20 months ago i am sorry to say. Hopefully the good old days of sponsorship and airlines employing people direct and paying for ratings as bmi did for me will return however with last weeks events this may have put that back by 6 months.
Sorry if this pisses some people off but thats the way it is I'm afraid.