Firstly, on a personal note, well done Luke - glad to see things worked out for you.
The original thread was job options for low time pilots in the UK.
My advice is to get a non-flying job with as high a pay as possible and to use that pay to retain currency on a decent sim.
Fly 4 hrs a month on a decent PNPT2 or better sim. Just fly a SID to and Airway then head for a STAR. Team up with another person in the same boat and be picky with one another about accuracy. Each time make it a Instrument procedure with which you are unfamiliar - just download one each time from the UK AIP online.
This will best serve you when it comes to sim ride time for yur first job. In the meantime you can network and build up information dossiers on target companies so when you get to that interview you can BLOW THEM AWAY when they ask - What do you know about us/why do you want to join.
Hell you've got 18 months - I would find out the names of the cleaners in that time.
As for the market. Well. I have put the figures on threads before - try searching for threads like "6 months on" or "an assessment of the job market" by me since 911.
I was just chatting in the pub last night to a friend of mine going through OATS at the moment. Its all quite depressing.
If you look at cancelled hiring, cadets that got the bullet plus redundancies the inital 911 hit was about 300 pilot positions. In the fallout months about the same numbers of line experienced pilots came onto the market. easyJet and Go and Ryanair hired about half that number leaving something like 300 line experienced guys out there.
Since 911 of course there have been new licences issued. In the order of 450 pilots have graduated from CPL IR courses since and I doubt more than a handful found work. A similar amount will find the same thing happening to them in the next 6 months.
There would already have been a couple of hundred low time pilots looking for work anyway and if you round everything up you get a picture of about 1500 pilots actively looking for work. You might easily reach Scroggs 2500 estimate if you allow for a couple of hundred guys in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Scandanavia, Ireland et al, who can also come to the UK for work. It is very depressing for some Irish friends of mine with low time looking for work that Ryanair keep hiring dozens of new FO's from the Netherlands...
The whole industry has tightened its belt and crews are generally working harder than ever before thus some growth is negated by greater efficiency. A lot of hiring is now finished for the summer so it'll be at least another 6 months before you see much movement. A B737 type rating is extra-ordinarly useful at the moment with FRA,GOE,EZY,GB,Astraeus and Excel ALL hiring for that particular type...
I am certain that things will really pick up in two years time - aviation is going to go the same way as it is in the US and that means 20% sustained growth for the next decade to reach US like levels. Just wait until there is an easyJet France, and Ryanair Germany and - sadly - no longer a Go-Fly Spain operating at the same levels as in the UK... Business travellers are demanding frequency in smaller aircraft - that still need 2 pilots.
Long Haul is looking good as well. The internet is making freight be shipped half way accross the world to a consumer who wants it delivered in 24hrs. Huge business markets in Latin America and China are barely yet exploited. Long haul leisure travel is the preserve of the very rich Western countries at the moment. But boy is that going to change as super jumbos and deregulation drive down prices and Westernisation provides both the money and the cultural influences to make people from India holiday in Florida or people in Brazil take a week in London.
Every airport in europe is festooned with cranes and bulldozers. A lot of pilots who entered the profession in the last boom - the 1970's package holiday - are now in their 50's.
This is a growth industry and make no mistake about it.
However. Spending the next 2 years servicing a massive debt whilst eeking out a few single engine hours for badger all money is going to be pretty damn miserable. I feel for all the people in that position I really do.
Hence my advice at the top of this post.
Good luck,
Per Ardva Ad Astra as the airforce are keen on saying. Very true.
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