Sir
Harsh the events of Sept 11th undoubtably are on all wannabes.
What choice do you have? Continue or stop, simple as that.
Anyone else in the same boat? You bet, lots are.
Silly or realist? Niether, just judging on what you have said. Take a longer look. The industry WILL recover. At the moment the airlines are all restructuring (using Sept 11th as the excuse). Lots of consolidation and 'cost cutting' is occuring, the major market in the UK that is suffering is the airlines with exposure to the Atlantic market. This market, again, WILL recover, but it may take a bit longer. Look at the positive side as well as the gloomy. Look at the low cost carriers who are booming, expanding their fleets and with it pilot numbers. Ok, there are plenty of out of work pilots at present with type ratings, but that is a temporary thing. Already the likes of Air2000 have re-employed some of those they hastily got rid of after Sept 11th.
When it comes down to your individual position, look at where you are and where you will be if you continue. I don't have a chrystal ball, but I guess you are at least 18 months away from a frozen ATPL. My guess is the whole market will have recovered from Sept 11th effects by then and the rest is 'as before', ie dependent on economic factors etc etc. So, by the time you finish I would say you will be in pretty much the same position as if Sept 11th hadn't occured; yes it will still be bloody hard to get a job, but the first one always has been and always will be.
So it's your decision to 'throw more money at it' or not. If we had all looked at it in the cold light of day when we were training unsponsored we could never really justify the outlay, there weren't, and still aren't any guarantees.
Hope this helps put your thoughts in context and helps you view things from a different angle which I understand must be very hard right now.
Good luck
PP
ps, not sure if you saw it at the time, but have a read of my story <a href="http://www.pprune.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=010430" target="_blank">http://www.pprune.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=010430</a> about the ups and downs of my training, some people found it a help to hear some 'good news' at the time. <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">
[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: Pilot Pete ]</p>