Bad times indeed. A real shame for people who have not been lucky with timing. I wonder what happened with jockmacstrap above as he would have likely come out the other end at just the wrong time. It can't be cheap keeping a ME/IR current on your tod. I reckon it will be another 4 years before things pick up again with oil & gas. That's the problem with helicopters, after spending £100k there are only really a handful of potential employers. Not so with fixed wing. Fohnwind makes a good point although the cost of CTC Wings and Easyjet type rating combined is closer to £140k!