Midnight,
I'm not defending the Secondee system, I don't like it any more than anyone else but I was offered a job with the whole deal explained in writing and after thinking about it , I decided that for me, at my age and in my financial position it wasn't a deal breaker. Others thought differently and maybe didn't join but I wasn't all on my lonesome on the induction course and quite a few others joined in the months following. Should recruitment restart, I very much doubt that there will be difficulty in attracting candidates. The actual number of secondees is not that great and as BA expand and commands/A380/787 slots come around, I wouldn't expect the total numbers to increase dramatically even if faces change.
Quite why the decision that I and quite a few others made renders us spineless and unfit for command I don't understand. The GSS FO s who have been promoted and also the trainers who promoted them would beg to differ I'm sure.
As I have pointed out before and now for positively the last time, no one puts a gun to your head and forces you to join. If you don't like it, you will not be hunted down and killed should you leave. Those that stay are generally happy enough. If you prefer the desert or the locos, then fill your boots.
Atlas are of course the parent company. Several of our pilots worked for Atlas on the original B A contract before GSS was set up. Quite apart from getting an FAA licence, the day Brits can fill US flightdeck positions in the US, I shall eat my shorts, seeing as I don't have a hat to hand. I appreciate the thought though.
