Timzsta
Unfortunately I am too old now at 25 and 6 months.
Silly question but have you checked this out with Ezy??
-Just that my initial impression was over 25 means 26...Maybe i'm wrong but i'd be tempted to apply anyway and let them make the judgement! Best of luck!!
Kram
Cadet schemes will always be the easy road to take if you can get it, and if you can great. But it undermines everyone else out there who are doing the hard yards.
I think I see what you're trying to say but I'm not sure that I agree.
I know a lot of people in the industry that have come through the 'hard yards' of the self improver route to becoming a commercial pilot and likewise know many cadet pilots who have achieved their ambitions travelling along the 'easy road'.
I think it's difficult to make comparisons about the difficulty of either route, rather comparing apples and oranges.
Firstly many of the self improvers would not have been able to complete a cadet course -for a variety of reasons... family commitments, wrong place wrong time etc.. but by self improving it has allowed them to tailor their training and career progresssion to suit themselves and their lifestyles (children etc). I would agree that the level of commitment required to follow this route would be high, particularly as such a route usually takes far longer than an intensive cadet course.
However the cadet pilot has to make the commitment to drop pretty much everything for the year of the course. The day to day pressure that they face (with regard to the flying course at least) is quite high with the sponsoring airline always looking over their shoulder. The cadet usually has the RHS of a nice aeroplane to look forward to.........but try telling that to some of the sponsored cadets from various airlines graduating in the last two years...
Also the pressure of having someone else (the sponsoring company) having the final say on your training and progress adds to the pressure (A different type of pressure from the self improver with a 1001 other things to think about).
I think it's fair to say neither is an 'easy road'...and a few 'hard yards' are completed either way.
As for the schemes undermining everyone else out there again I would have to disagree. The airline industry is notoriously fickle -ring them at 9.30 they have no plans to recruit, 9.45 with two resignations on the desk and they have a crew shortage!! At least the schemes demonstrate a commitment by the airlines to taking a longer term view towards recruitment. There will always be companys who want to sponsor their own cadets for whatever benefits they believe it brings. However no company could sponsor the number of cadets required to meet all of the future demand of the industry. There will
always be a requirement for non cadet entrants when the industry is on the up and no requirement for anybody (regardless of whether sponsored or not) when the industry is in decline. If I were you Kram, rather than believing people are being undermined, i'd be celebrating companies beginning to sponsor again- it's a sign of them thinking they'll need pilots again soon (whatever their background) -A good sign for all of us in the industry whether employed or not!
All the best,
CTB