Firstly I'd like to say - Hello to everybody as this is my first post.
Stooge I'm in the same boat but with less hours. I found this link through pprune to be the most clear cut information on the topic
http://www.flyguide.co.uk/jaa1.htm
It seems to be a bit of a catch 22 from where I sit. If you do your licence in Europe where do you gain the experience that the Airlines want.... is instructing the only way? And on the other hand in Australia you can get experience (if you can get job) but there is only one large carrier. If you miss out there then you basically have no other options if you want to fly large machines.
Maybe you guys in Europe can answer this - After you get your licence and tick all the boxes what do you do? Here in Australia we pack the car up and go driving in search of a job (skydiving, cattlestations, glidertowing, instructing and so on). Some get lucky get a job and work their way up from machine to machine.
I can't afford to do all my training again! I'm willing to do the extra ground school + flight tests but spending 80k is out of control. Is 500 multicrew on a turboprop a law that allows people to to just sit the flight tests and groundschool?
What do you guys think?