Thanks Keg for the update. I neglected to consider that a quarter of the course is revenue producing, so my wage cost numbers are perhaps 25% high.
Wages get paid anyway, but for work done...time spent on a course is unproductive. In any event, the numbers that I hear being muttered by haunted-looking junior pilots suggest that mainline's problem is far larger than can be solved with 100 VRs. The returning (or not) pilots are, I guess, the fly in the ointment.
Back to calculating the earliest day that I can retire from this toxic dump, VR or not....