Or changed bases, took annual leave, drove around Australia for a holiday and claimed accomodation, fuel and food as moving expenses. :)

I wouldn't have done that? Surely not! Well no. But I know plenty that have!

Start your own consultancy company,
Employ yourself, then target your company at an aviation business... No surprise, you probably won't get the gig! Make the company more attractive by getting all employees type rated on certain aircraft.
After 6 months, the company goes broke and all employees have long since moved on!
In the meantime, expenses such as employee Christmas parties, long lunches, travel costs etc are also claimable.

Bad business ideas are not a felony.

The problem with asking for tax advice is that if you happen to get a very clear answer (Slam-Click's link above) but claim anyway then you go from a good bloke who's made a genuine mistake to someone who has intentionally defrauded the ATO.

The answer to the OP's question is very clear, NO, neither of the hypothetical pilots may claim the endorsement. If you wish to go down the road of claiming anyway then it would be a lot better if you never asked the question and were therefore genuinely mistaken about the rules.

I don' think that ignorance as an excuse will "fly".

If you claim something you are not entitled to, and you are discovered, not only will you have to pay it back, you will pay interest (currently 9.75% compounding) on that amount , plus any penalty that the ATO decides to apply.

As much as I dislike the way the Government spends my taxes, it is preferable to worrying about getting the letter in the mailbox requiring a substantial amount of money sometime down the track.

It is simply cheaper, and less stressful, in the long term to ask for a ruling and take it from there.

I was going to disagree with AerocatS2A's reply

But for the original question I think he is correct.

However if the said pilot had a letter of appointment with the new company before commencing the training then he would be able to claim the expense.

The exact number of Virgin Blue pilots escapes me but it was not far off 500 pilots that were able to claim back the 737 endorsement costs.

As I mentioned the AFAP have all the details and funded the test case.

Previous posters advice of claiming the tax deduction without doing any homework and using the excuse of having made made a "genuine mistake" when they get audited is just simply insane.

The ATO have no snse of humour nor would the self assesment system work at all if it was up to the ATO to determine every claim and not have an effective penalty system in place.

The self assesment system works because of the threat of substantial fines and penalties if a mistake is made by the taxpayer.
Excuses of innocence, genuine mistake or deliberate act will be treated the same.

Talk to the AFAP to get the facts.

I was also very clear to suggest to obtain an ATO Private Binding Ruling.

If you have a ruling before the event, and follow that, there is no fraud.

4. From July 1, 2014, self-education will have a $2,000 cap
The 2013 Federal Government Budget set a cap of $2,000 on self-education expenses claims, which will come into effect from July 1, 2014. This means individual taxpayers may only claim up to $2,000 on any fees paid from the 2014/15 financial year onwards. At the moment the amount is uncapped, so if you’re after a qualification where the course fees are more than $2,000, now is the time to enrol and pay.

Seems the horse has bolted already.