Hey guys, long time reader...first time poster.

I've been invited for an interview in Wagga Wagga for the cadetship. I have tried funding flying myself, however at $300+ an hour dual, I simply cannot afford it. As a result, I've looked towards cadetships as a way of helping with the costs.

In terms of Rex, I've read that cadets must pay $25,000 towards the course before commencing the training. Rex do offer scholarships to certain cadets to cover this; however that ammount is paid at the END of training.

I'm just wondering....I unfortunately don't have parents who can put $25k up for me to do this course; and I certainly don't have that capital lying around to do so myself. Does anyone know of a way around this, and how cadets have managed this in the past? Unfortunately has put me in a hard place, where I won't be able to afford the $25k up front; yet I can barely afford to fly out of my own pocket, as the original plan was to pay for my CPL, then fly GA to work hours up.

Cheers,

If what you want is to get into aviation and have a job with a good airline REX is one of the best cadetships a out there.
U go through ur interviews. If successful u'll start the training program. It's supposed to be 32 weeks but some people have finished it in over a year due to instructor and aircraft availability. I finished it in 51 weeks.
Rex pays for ur accommodation and meals past the 32 weeks, or whatever training period they r now stating, haven't checked.
After that u will have 5 weeks of Saab 340 groundschool, pretty though few weeks, lots of info. Then u go to the sim in melb for a week and a half, subject to availability. At the moment the sim in melb is pretty busy, but Rex has just built a new one in Wagga which should allow more spots. I waited for 3 months before my sim. Once u pass ur prof check (sim test) u go to the base they have given u and commence training, u'll only fly with a training captain. It took me a couple of months to finish the training and then u do a check to line. Once u r checked u can operate with any captain.
Training at Rex is pretty rigorous and it has one of the hardest sim checks (spoken to virgin and jetstar pilots who were with Rex and they say their checks r nothing compared to ours).
Everyone gets checked every 3 months, twice in the aircraft and twice in the sim, one of them is ur instrument renewal.
Depending where u r based will mean how much u work. FOs in syd r working more than FOs in Adelaide as there seemed to be too many FOs in Adelaide. However, some FOs r moving to other bases and work has picked up, flying an average of 50 hrs flight time per month in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. Cadets r looking at at least 2 years before having the requirements to apply for the PICUS program which will give the FO 500 hrs command. Duration of the program is around 2 years flying 500 hrs a year. Once u finish the PICUS program u should have around 1500 aeronautical hrs and will be able to apply for command. 6-12 months training will give u the extra 500 aeronautical needed for the min 2000 aeronautical u r required to have to fly as a captain with Rex.
So it might take up to 5 years to become a captain, this is also providing they have captaincy places available. In an industry like aviation were u don't know who is gonna be there next year this quite uncertain. There might be lots of places or u might have to wait for a while.
I know a few people that while on PICUS they got accepted into jetstar. The only thing extra they needed that Rex didn't provide was a frozen atpl.
All in all Rex is a good airline to work for. U can go either the GA way or the cadet way, either way has it's cons and pros. U will certainly won't be earning 150k a year as a 1st year FO, but then again don't think u'll be earning that flying a 172. Salary is enough to live well, have a good life style and enjoy flying while getting paid for it

Can someone explain how the rex guys log the PICUS program. Couple people are hinting that they log it as PIC when most other operators log it as ICUS...

Also, I understand REX CADETS train for MPL's rather than a 150 CPL course. How many command hours does a student get out of that? Reason being you need at least 70 hours for an ATPL (which you'll need for cmd) and all other PIC hours can be written off as ICUS, Which could pose a real road block to some guys...

HR

Seems like that doesn't make sense with everything you listed previously - plz elaborate why you think that's the case?

Humbly Reserved,

On the Rex website under careers, in the Cadet Pilot FAQ it actually says Australian CPL with MECIR. AAPA has the ability to issue an MPL but this approval is only for the UAE and is used for overseas training. All Rex Cadets get a CPL and thus meet the 70 PIC requirement for the Australian ATPL.

Cadets get CPL not MPL, so we have the 70 PIC hrs requirement for the atpl, the extra 130 hrs can be PICUS to achieve the total of 250hrs requirement
Cadets log 500 hrs PICUS

Ask and ye shall receive,

Cheers Dayzel

one8two

I had a friend that got a personal loan to fund his flight training to CPL level. A scary plan as you could end up in scary amounts of debt with no job.

other then that, be patient and save it up.

at what interest rate, if I may ask?

Hang on, I though ICUS could only be logged for the purpose of gaining an ATPL. If less than 500 hours command is required for an ATPL issue then why are cadets able to log 500 hours ICUS?

Because under CAO 82 Appendix 4. The PIC of a Multi Crew, Multi Engine Turbine aircraft above 5700kg engaged in RPT operations requires not only an ATPL but also 2000 hours aeronautical experience of which 500 must be either PIC of Multi Engine aircraft under the IFR or ICUS to the same amount.

it was 2007ish I never asked him, but my car loan at the time was around 6%.

Pilotchute.

Some years ago CASA increased the requirement for command hours re: the ATPL to 500 in certain circumstances. At the same time they reduced the non ICUS component to 70 hours, down from 100. This fitted in nicely with the command hours that cadets had at end of course and the requirements of the LOWCAP AOC.

ICAO annex I which sets out the rules for the logging of ICUS from the RHS, states that it can only be logged for the purpose of attaining a higher category of licence (ATPL in this case). Previously only 250 hours. This was fine for HCAP operators, but in REX's case they were screwed.

Rather than change the requirements of the LOWCAP AOC (that had the possibility of blowback written all over it), CASA facilitated the wishes of certain operators by what in my opinion was the devaluing of the Australian ATPL.

Slicker than snott!

So Krusty what you are saying is that if you bring in a cadetship that will dramatically reduce the experience in the cockpit, CASA will reward you by making special rules just for your company?

That is not just slick, it stinks to high heaven.

PC, there are many threads with many hours of relaxed reading that go into the reasons why CASA doth stinketh!:ok:

pilotchute/Lookleft....

Yup! :yuk:

Looked into this. Unfortunately I couldn't go 32 (as a minimum) weeks without any repayments.

Looks like I'm going to have to cancel my may interview and hope for the best next year.

Will the new rules coming in at the end of this year put an end to Low Cap AOC operators needing their Captains to have 500 hours M/E command?

thanks for the reply Lord Leirbag. Sounds like Rex is the way to go. Is the salary enough to live off plus pay off the debt?

The fact that question needs to be asked is pretty damning indictment on the state of pay and conditions in this industry.