Not really V2, how do you think the industry managed before the days of P2F and MPL? We got our licences and then went off and got a job flying light twins, often overseas, until we had enough hours for an airline to even look at us, others took the Intructing route.
And people used to think the world was flat. What was the best system in the past does not mean it is best for today. Times have changed.
1. Private GA has become remarkably more expensive, stopping many from hours bashing as I have remarked before.
2. Commercial GA is increasingly hard to come across. Yes there is some abroad, which provides excellent handling opportunities, and I would love to do it. But some may question the practices that occurs, the mentality that builds and also the difficulty in converting them to multicrew +multi systems flying. Depends on the individual I guess. But even so, is there enough to go round?
3. Instructing you often get no more than £15ph, maybe £20 if you are lucky, exluding the ground briefing times. This is not enough to even repay the interest on the loans. Yes in the past you may just get a second job until you get your 1500 hours, but in the current eco climate, this becomes unfeasible. Secondly if you are worried about pilots with 10-100 hours lacking handling skills, what makes you sure they are gonna be competant instructors. Double standards no?
4. In the past, maybe when some of you guys were training, the RAF/military was double, 3, maybe even 4 times as big? This provided a massive pool of high trained and skilled individuals, with many hours, to move onto the commercial ladder. Many of these individual's (like myself) could not afford to become commercial pilots without the RAF's "help". We all know that now, this stream of pilots is drickling dry. Commercial flying's thirst for pilot has stayed about the same, arguably even grown. Where are these extra pilots going to come from if not the military?
5. As Flybe, BA, BACF, Monarch, Aer Lingus, etc offer more schemes, less people will be prepared to take the self sponsored route. Why would you? No longer will people feel it is nessessary to pay for a type rating, go to RyanAir, and then leave for a traditional charachter asap. As self sponsored's dry up (or their quality declines as "the best" are on schemes), hopefully this will force RyanAir/Easy to up their games, and improve their T+C's once again. One can only hope!