Type Rating Companies Theory

[Louis Euan]

There seems to be a lot of talk about TR's at the moment. This is mostly due to the fact that the industry is in recession at the moment and people feel the need to have that extra advantage when applying for those few jobs available. Personally I will not pay for a TR mainly because I cannot afford one but also think it is a huge financial risk unless there is a guaranteed job at the end, or possibly a very good chance.
However my point is that until recently TR companies have been pretty much low key affairs, that is to say there never seems to be a hell of a lot of promotion or advertising, may be a couple of ads in Flight Int.. My theory is that this was because they had plenty of work from people doing TRings, whereas now they seem to be advertising everywhere and offering all sorts of benefits and schemes such as Bond Aviation etc. This may be because the business is slowing down because peolple are not needing to get trype ratings because they are getting jobs.

I am forever the optimist!

The other theory could be that they could have a touch of the OATS where airlines have deserted them because of the down turn so they need to advertise to a different market ie us the wannabe pilot desperate for a job. OATS have had to change there marketing plans, now they have huge adverts in Flight and FLYER etc. Whereas before they had a lot of business from the airlines sponsored cadets. Now TR companies have followed suit and seem to be offering all sorts of schemes with big ad campaigns to draw in the desperate wannabe pilot.

Any thoughts?

I am always looking for positive signs for an industry boost.

[mad_jock]

Its proberly the oppersite.

In the old days they always had enough work coming in through the doors to keep the sim full 24H.

Now that recruitment has slowed down and pilots arn't moving around as much they have spare capacity. So for relatively little investment they can keep the cash flow going with wannabies.

MJ

[in-2-wind]

At the BALPA Employment Conference on Saturday, most larger airlines said that a self funded TR without line time was virtually useless to them, and advised against such practice!! They prefer to train you themselves to their own standards, once you've been through their selection process. For some reason, a certain self funding TR establishment decided to leave the event prior to the informal session! :E

windy

[Louis Euan]

It is reassuring to know that the big Airlines are against self funding TRs I was beginning to think it was the norm with all this talk about it. When i set out on this journey of becoming an airline pilot there was not much talk of self funding TRs now its all everyone talks about and with all these ads in flight etc. i would have thought twice about getting into the industry if i had known that TRs were part of the course. Lets hope that this is just a trend during an economical downturn.
The economy seems to be turning in the airline industry if not slowly.

[mad_jock]

To be honest the down fall of the train industry in the Uk is proberly doing more for wannabies than any economic rise.

Eastern have been recruiting again and the more roads get clogged up and trains fail to be reliable the more people are going to use airlines to get where they want to go.

MJ