As my name is being thrown around on the recent posts, I felt I should comment on a couple of items:-
Tailscrape
Are you seriously telling me that Astraeus has more than it's fair share of pilot's at home in the summer busy season........ when their seats are filled by paying for rating pilots?
This summer we employed ( as in paid the salaries to) the correct number of pilots we needed to fly the commercial program. Where I had vacancies, and suitable candidates completed their type ratings under the Bond TRTO, I offered them paid employment, including their line training. The offer was seasonal, and was NOT implied when they signed for their type rating under the TRTO. The temporary nature of the employment was due to the seasonal nature of the charter business. We make money in the Summer and lose it in the winter. The secret is to make more money in the summer than you lose in the winter, this way you become a successful business, which means you contiunue to keep people employed on a long term basis.
Of the pilots who joined us on this basis, I wish to retain the services of most of them as we move forward as they are very good , albeit with low overall experience. So I will be looking to offer them something more permanent for the start of next summer.
For this winter ( as I mentioned earlier) I will crew up to the full requirement for the commercial program. I cannot do otherwise., because, as Crashdive suggests, I have no way of knowing how many people want to undertake the enhanced Bond Course, nor when they might be available for line training. And I must ensure along the way that our primary customers ( the 60 or so tour operators we work for) have pilots to fly their customers (our passengers).
For my budget for next year, I have plannned to type rate up to 6 crews. The reason for this is that, in general, the candidates coming through the TRTO are low overall experience. I need to identify candidates with some experience ( say 2000+ hours and multi-crew airline experience) who might be suitable for Command in, say 2005/6. There is a critical need to become self-sustaining in terms of Captain vacancies as quickly as possible.
I am also considering running another PPRuNe Cadet scheme as the first one proved so successful.
I will also, where I can , offer paid employment to TRTO customers who have demonstrated a high standard during their course. But , again, no such guarantee is implied when they sign up.
I will continue to support and advise, where I can, the Wannabe community, so I will repeat what I have been saying for the past three or four years. You make your own luck in this industry. As El Desperado explained quite elegantly, there are vacancies popping up all over the industry. It is better to be inside the industry aspiring to move up the ladder, than outside trying to decide where the ladder is.
Let me just put this quote up again....
As was put very succinctly by Hamrah at the wannabes seminar on Friday, in the current economic environment, no airline wants to type-rate a new hire if it can get away with it. It is simply too risky for them to splash out £20,000+ on someone who may struggle or even fail. That is why the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet are hoovering up the supply of already-rated pilots, whereas the bottom-feeding TurboProp companies are insisting that you buy a Shed/F27 rating before you get a look in. This will change over time with market forces as the outlook improves, however currently it is the case.
In 1998, I recruited into GO 3 pilots who had, a couple of years before hand, paid for the own 737 type rating with British Midland (Who had, at that stage, being doing the same thing for 6 or 7 years). Of the three I took on as first officers then ( admittedly they had operated for a year with Ryanair) all of them are now training Captains. All of them are under 35. For them it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time for the industry.
Bond/Astraeus offer a good course, for those who are interested. It is not the exclusive way to get a job with Astraeus, it is also not a guarantee of a job with Astraeus.
Oh, and Flypuppy, you and I have spoken often in the past about careers. The one piece of advice from me that you took was to get a job in the industry. This you have done successfully, and by virtue of that have moved a couple of steps up the old ladder. I would suggest that you are well placed to fulfill your dream , if you just keep your nose clean and wait for the change in the market place. I would think the Chief Pilot already has already completed your "interview".
H