How many posts do we have to read from moderators (and their alter egos) defending this scheme?
From what I remember Bond was set up as an integral part of Astreaus, specifically to sell type ratings. In this case I dont believe it is some lucky coincidence that there is spare training capacity. Maybe I am being too harsh but that is how it seems from the outside.
Like you Scroggs, I dont have access to the books, but, Bond has, at a guess, been quite successful and managed to maintain a cash flow for the company. This would have protected the AOC during the lean months in winter, when, as a charter airline business drops dramatically.
Students who are engaged in line training wont be doing this on empty aircraft. They will be flying on revenue earning flights. I havent done the arithmentic, but I would *guess* that the additional cost of paying for line training (on top of the cost of the type rating) would comfortably cover the cost of a training captain and any flight pay. This can only benefit the operating company by easing the stress on "full time" crews by allowing additional bods to fill the roster - especially during the busy summer schedule. All this at little cost to the operating company. It would also allow "full time" crews to avoid unpopular destinations like West Africa. Seems like a win-win situation for the airline. If the rules allow it I suppose it must be ok.
Somehow, though, the ethics of it dont seem quite right. I can understand the concerns voiced by IFALPA. It will only take one small incident caused by a paying line training pilot and they will be all over it like a rash demanding the practice be stopped.
The more I read the comments in support of this scheme, the more I feel like I am f@rting against thunder, and the more I feel like throwing in the towel. Since the inception of JAR, becoming a pilot has become much much more expensive than the olden days when WWW got his licence for 15k. If paying for a type rating become the way of the world then the cost of getting a job will be *at least* 70,000 pounds.
I cannot and will not pay that sort of money for the possibility of a job.
Last edited by Flypuppy; 4th Sep 2003 at 04:01.