wrong target
dood - I think you have the wrong end of the stick - it is not the cadets we are criticising but the system that gets them into £120k debt. There was a better way in the past and yes it took longer to get the jet job but the experience described in Learmont's blog mentioned in last post is not gained by sitting in the cruise for 500h watching the automation fly the machine whilst you pay the company Euro 35000.
Becoming a flying instructor or flying light twins in GA was a right of passage for most up until the advent of JAR in the late 1990s. Very few cadet systems existed apart from larger airlines such as BA. Yes PPL instructing is poorly paid. In my own case I was self employed for a while with an income of just £7/flying hour in the mid 1990s. But there are professional instructors for the main CPL/IR schools as well as military contractors. In both cases salaries can be up to £50k for the experienced ones.
There are many professional pilots who oppose what has happened in the industry. They have fought long and very hard to stop the abuse of junior crews - not just protect the older members pay packets. Unions such as the IPA have advised folk away from TRSS where there were no g-tees of work thereafter.
Now they are campaigning against P2F:
"We at the Independent Pilots Association are concerned at the growing number of Pay to Fly schemes and associated fixed term contracts, that provide low salaries. So much so, that we sent a letter on the 13th April 2010, to Captain R.M. Jones, Head of Flight Operations Division, Civil Aviation Authority, voicing these concerns.
We received a response dated 4th May 2010 from Captain Jones, which is available in the I.P.A office."