I hear exactly the same. "I didn't realise there was any other way of doing it" is another lament when they come in, cosplaying an airline pilot, with a worthless resume...

Such a huge investment and 50% of it could have been used to get some valuable command hours day and night. One of my instructors is also a financial advisor and strongly advises against it, yet they take the word of completely unqualified sales people instead and get themselves into terrible financial strife.

182/206/210's are easy to steer if you got good brains. Many Wellcamp students now flying them up north after doing their CPL in a Diamond. I used to call the Diamond machines gliders but upon 5 seconds of research I found out it's got a glide ratio of 11:1 which is not even close to an actual glider. Diamonds and VSL courses are becoming a bit of a scapegoat in the industry.

Real problem is CPL graduates who don't leave the city. I would suggest if you are a young white male who has poor social skills, a CPL in hand and still live at home with parents that you are in the same bucket as about 300 other CPLs issued that year. No, doing an instructor rating will not fix the problem and get you a job. I would suggest the young females are more productive hires to flight schools because of their different perspectives and life experience (no I'm not being sarcastic here, the female instructors I have flown with are great and their emotional intelligence adds a whole new level to instruction).

So no motivation to absolutely "hustle" and exhaust every possible avenue, every possible town in Australia for a job, no social network and no qualifications that make you stand out (ie I worked at the same place for 6 years since year 9) < This could be anyone, regardless of whether you self funded a CPL or not.

Even then, as I found, you can do everything right and still not find a flying job in this country. There are probably some fellas out there with a great attitude, great flying skills etc who have been training in a Diamond at a sausage factory then done a famil in a 210 with no worries - even then, that person will still be competing with ~1000 other CPLs. The odds are not in your favour.

Don't throw every student who did a HELP loan course in the bin. It seems I have to defend myself a lot. Meet someone in aviation, they ask where I did my training - I can see it in their eyes, they are ready to judge me if I went to a sausage factory! I had someone in another thread suggest I didn't care about aviation enough. That I signed up for a VET course because I saw airliners on the website. Completely wrong. False assumption. Bit annoying to be judged like that.

Perhaps a review is in order for all VET operators. Those with low completion rates need to be investigated and the ability to offer such services pulled. Providers should have some hurdles to jump through in order to offer such services, ie aircraft types, timeframes etc. As we have seen with one ex operator in Melbourne, they are lured by greed, ie government cash. I know one GA CFI who has put on an extra Instructor, purely to deal with the demand from ex Diploma students from over the road, all coming to him begging for help. Kundry, your point is valid, sadly many others have given the VET student a bad name, one charter owner I was speaking to not that long ago refers to them as "sausages and diamonds".

True, the remote experience is certainly helpful, regardless of type. A dozen hours in a 206/210 is somewhat something, for those from Melbourne or Sydney, who have never ventured outside the border.

I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career overseas, so completely out of touch with GA here. I looked online and was dismayed to see there are no operators of C2xx types in Mt Isa, once a bustling base for Lanhams. Probably the same story played out across many other towns. . Has all the SE day VFR charter type work been extinguished by demands from FIFO workers for multi crew pressurised turbo props.?

If so, that just leaves joyflights, glider towing and meat bombing. Not exactly rich pickings.

Do cattle stations no longer employ CPLs? This was a common start in the old days. Chasing cows (4 legged ones) and doing the station shopping in Darwin was how I got my start.

A few years ago, I met a young guy driving an Uber, getting close to his CPL but now saving up for his MEIR plus wait for it…. a B200 rating! Tried to talk sense into him, telling him no one would employ someone with 250 hours to fly a Kingair, but he was pumped and knew better. It’s arguable that with 250 hours, he should be flying single pilot in hard IMC. Often wonder who talked him into it and how he went. How times have changed.

From what I read, it looks like it’s an order of magnitude more difficult for todays young CPL to get their first job than for us 50 years ago. They have my sympathy.

You will find many mining operated/owned airports, even some hardcore council operated strips, in QLD, are not overly accommodating to GA aircraft. Or they will slug some huge fee to stop by. I am sure some on here will have some stories to tell from unfriendly operators.

Just double check ERSA as some places charge GA aircraft hefty fees if you land between xx time of the day.