You need an ICAO PPL before you can enroll on an ATPL theory course. Nothing stops you getting hold of the books earler mind.
As for now being a good time to train. Well yeah the school will be less busy so potentially your instructor will be less harrassed than before. Mind you, if you are his only paycheck that month, there is pressure to do "one more trip just to polish you up a bit". Decent places won't make this an issue but the pressure is there...
The real issue is will you train and be left with nothing to do with the licence afterwards for so long that you lose your flying skills or cannot afford to keep your IR current.
Remember its going to cost you about £1700 a year to keep your Class One, Multi and IR tickets in working order. This will easily outstrip any savings you are able to beat out of your chosen FTO becuase they need the business...
The chances of gaining employment doing Aerial Work are wafer thin. Aerial Work is often hazardous and requires experience. You are operating with no Ops manual, no backup and often not much in the way of equipment. Employers will need 1000hrs just to insure you on the aircraft in most cases. <40hrs P1 time and a Deep Frzn ATPL is going to impress nobody in GA yet perversely CAN get you a Boeing RHS. Thats the way of the world.
The school are graduating 450 people already this year. They join people already holding licences looking for work. Nothing much is going to happen to them all in 12 months. IF you start Integrated now then you'll be joining that lot. I'd want another year for a lot of the backlog to have cleared either by jobs soaking them up or people jacking the whole thing in or people getting rusty and not passing the sim rides that you will be better prepared for having just finished your MCC etc.
I note that anecdotally BA's loads seem to be recovering. Boads well.
WWW
[ 12 October 2001: Message edited by: Wee Weasley Welshman ]