How quickly is the job situation improving?

[Pilot Pete]

Just to add,

all the guys I trained with during 1997/1998 who I am still in touch with have got jobs. Some took longer than others, but eventually they made it too. The veriety of flying jobs that they got was immense. A couple got big jets straight out of training......we'd all applied to all the jobs! They struck lucky. One went to Brits, one to Aer Lingus, Debonair (now Virgin Atlantic!), and one got JMC after CTC selection. Others got turbo-prop jobs with BWA (now Go/Easy), Aurigny, British Midland Commuter. Only two I know of went instructing, one who ended up at Welshpool and then OATS and me who completed the course but went to do air taxi after making the contact. Those who found it impossible to get a job (just bad luck as they were doing all the right things) took over a year of looking before one went to Africa to fly Cessna Caravans (he's now unfrozen his ATPL and is back in the UK job search market), another who took the same route and flew them in Africa and the UK and has just started with Brits and one of my best pals who had a particularly tough time but went 'blip driving' at LATCC whilst para-dropping at his own expense to get more hours, eventually I managed to help him get an air taxi job at the outfit I was with. He went from there to BACE and starts with Easyjet next month.

So there you have it. There are no guarantees, but with the determination to succeed you WILL make it if you make all the right moves and go the extra mile to keep the hours ticking over. Like I have said, there have been better times to be looking for a job, but I don't think this is too bad a time to be contemplating starting training.

I would suggest you make an effort to stay in touch with everyone you meet during your training (apart from the complete idiots who you will come accross!) as contacts are everything. You never know where one or two of them may end up, especially in the smaller stuff like the air taxi where even the newest pilot is listened to for suggestions of suitable applicants. Even if you can just get inside info on who is actively recruiting etc it makes the contact worthwhile. So start networking the day of your first trial lesson and take a note of names and info.

Good luck

PP