Thanks, I am an officer and will retire as a major. Luckily I am on the old pension which means I can retire with a pension at 37 (5 years time) but due to all the cuts in the pension scheme I won't get that much each year so it makes sense to do three more years which has a significant effect on my pension salary and will help cushion the blow of the initial reduction in salary that will come with a career choice. It will also mean that I will have an income even I am unemployed for a while - plus it will boost my salary for the rest of my life so worth hanging on for. So instead I will leave on my 40th birthday hopefully with a fATPL in my hand and circa 750hrs. I am hoping that being 40 rather than 37 won't hinder me too much when applying for a FO position as I will still have 25years work left in me!
I don't plan on getting my CPL, ME, MEIR and MCC until my last 3 years so I am not paying for the revals and I can use resettlement grants to fund it with no debts. I do however want to furnish my PPL with as many ratings as possible so I can gain additional experience (such as IFR and aeros) but also to reduce the cost of the ATPL courses hence my desire to do an SEIR soon.
I am thoroughly loving the modular slow time route as it is interesting and an adventure. It has seen me own a couple of vintage taildraggers, gain a few hundred hours on Tailwheel aircraft and fly some really interesting aircraft with interesting people. I have made some great friends and useful contacts by going this route and like to think it will help me stand out from the crowd a it as hopefully will my military service. I am also a tug pilot at a couple of gliding clubs to further build hours which I love and again it is another chapter in what is my unique, fun and thoroughly satisfying route to the commercial flight deck. I would wholeheartedly recommend the modular route to anyone with a long term plan, a family or just someone looking for an adventure rather than a standard experience.
So the airlines don't care how I get the MEIR just that I have one?