If i may pick up on the tp verse jet pilot thing
There is an industry wide attitude in this country vis avis the suitability of turbo prop pilots (or unsuitability) to fly jets.
Its just protectionism and the old style elitism that needs to be purged from the uk fir.I've been a victim of it, but lucky enough to get around it. I mean how could my 8000 hrs command on dash and fokkers etc possibly prepare me for the rigours of dividing by 8 and 3 and keeping my feet off the rudders,god only knows. the atp was good enough for ba as a training tool in the past. now it seems the only tools are the managers and dinosaurs.
flying jets is a piece of wee and i'd hire a tpdriver with a good provenance over some ex 250hr straight on jet nonce with a few thousand hours on type anytime.
a career of imitating other peoples decisions does not make you a good pilot, being a good pilot does that.
rant over
my sympathies to all of you who have only operated in uk companies, it doesnt (and isnt ) have to be like this