I'm sorry I'm a little confused. Can we clarify what Pay to Fly actually is before we start laying into each other?
The fantastic offer which I declined was a 70% contract for which the 100% salary was £45,182 70% of which was £31,627 which was going to be paid over 12 months so £2635.58 per month. All sounding not too bad so far?
So I was to work for 8.4 months and get paid £2635.58 per month for 12. But they assured me that almost all 70% guys got picked up to 100% contracts on completion of the first 9 months but you don't get the £7906.75 back which they owe you for the time you should now be off. Additionally I was to pay for my type rating at £25,000 and be bonded for the line training. They generously offered a 30% reduction in my type rating costs because I was on a 70% contract.
So, and please feel free to jump in here and explain why I'm wrong, by my reckoning I was getting paid £23,720 for nine months work and was paying them £7906.75 + £17,500 = £25,406.75
Overall then that was a net payment from me to them of £1686.75 none of which was tax deductible which makes the sums much worse from my viewpoint.
This was not considered a pay to fly scheme, how exactly? I simply cannot afford to keep a family at that rate and hence didn't take the job. However a lot of guys I know did.
Am I a little jealous that I was not in the financial position to take the job? Well yes a bit.
Do I think that the aviation industry is a better place for this sort of thing? Not really.
You can only do your best and if that isn't good enough then perhaps you need to move on. Perhaps it's time I moved on.