One thing I dont understand is what pilots in the EU do to build hours.
Pilots in the EU do the same thing to hour build as in the US... but there are some differences:
1. In Europe, it is possible to get hired at an airline with minimum hours, so less guys are inclined to hour build at low paying GA jobs, and some guys don't need to hour build
2. GA is small in Europe, so there are less opportunities to hour build in General Aviation. There are also quite a bit of low hour pilots without jobs.
3. Instead of hour building in GA, some guys resort to just buying a type rating, and some even resort to paying for hours at an airline to gain hours on the type
For what it's worth, I have seen banner towing in Spain along the beaches in Summer. I've also known guys here to do fish watching, touristic flights, aerial surveying, aerial photography, traffic reporting, parachute ops, glider towing, and instructing here in Europe.
I would never think of coming to Europe if I was an American with FAA licenses!
Haha, that is exactly what I did, and all my friends think that I'm crazy. Having said that, I would have been a lot further along and would have spent a lot less money had I stayed in the US, but I have no regrets.