What a load or rubbish. GA experience can definately be an advantage, no question about that. But saying that a pilot without GA expeirience is somehow dangerous and will never make a good pilot is just wrong! Once again, I have flown with dozens of Captains who apart from the basic training they completed as a cadet have never set foot in anything apart from a modern airliner. I have flown with Captains who are ex-GA and ex-Military, the worst I have ever flown with was ex-RAF, does that mean that all ex-RAF pilots are crap airline pilots.... NO. Waterwings, if your mate was so concerned about the FO flying the ILS approach in such conditions then he should have taken over, that is his job as a Captain, that is why he is there. As for the bloke who pranged his 206 and is now on a 737, don't forget that regardless of whether you pay for the rating or not, you still have to pass the same flight tests and written exams as everyone else, you can't buy your way through these. Infact from my experience cadets are often put under extra scruitiny purely for the fact that it is known they don't have a big pool of experience to draw upon. Some cadets will not be able to cope with the training, they ones that pop out the other end will make perfectly good airline pilots. By the way I know people with big GA backgrounds who themselves have failed to meet the standard of airline flying, so don't for a second think just because you have a few years flying a clapped out single around this will mean you will make a good jet pilot.
By all means attack the cadetship for being poor value due to the cost involved and the potential for it to reduce terms and conditions across the board, but please don't pedal the line that people who come through this scheme are all going to be bad pilots. That is just rubbish. By the way, I have both GA and Cadetship experience (although I didn't have to pay anything for my sponsorship) I think that this is a poor scheme due to the cost and if it were me I wouldn't be signing up for it, it is too expensive and the 6 year bond is too long. I will not though discourage others as it is their own choice, and when I get to fly with them I will keep an eye on them just like I keep an eye on anyone else sitting on the flightdeck with me.
