smit0701

I agree they have their pros and cons. The sharp cadetship is great - if you have a cool hundred grand lying around that is. Which makes it completely unaffordable for someone my age with a family and a mortgage. The Rex one is a lot cheaper but you get shafted at the back end upon employment locked in for seven years on a crappy 50k salaray. Which makes it completely unaffordable for someone my age with a family and a mortgage. So clearly these cadetships are aimed at young people with no financial commitments and the airlines are passing up on the opportunities of employing people who have a lot more practical, business and life experience (no offence to anyone younger people intended). This is stupid because those of us slightly more ripe would still be bound by any contracts long enough to give the airline their payback. I dont know about anyone else but if Rex offered me a half decent salary on graduation (equivilant to QF or JQ or Virgin or Tiger) I'd be happy to stay there for life and fly the SAABs to the dusty country airfields - it doesnt matter to me whether its a SAAB, a metro, a 737 or an A380, flying is flying. So if anyone from Rex is reading this.... (ha ha).... Oh, and Matty, be careful with your PICUS hours. The big four mentioned above are very picky about how much actually counts when it comes to getting a job with them.

There is about 36 pages of threads relating to the Rex cadet pilot scheme on pprune. Its a big read so in summary: 98% of it is negative. no-one in the cadetship or having completed the cadetship has commented. The general vibe is that there will be a very long stint in the RH seat and no PIC hours. 7 years is a big committment. the pay isnt great. The flip side is that you get a CPL & ME CIR and a guaranteed job at the end for upfront 25k (plus loans). I'm trying to remain switzerland on this one so I'll abstain from offering any opinion.

Qantas A380 from SIN to MEL made an emergency landing at Adelaide this morning at approximately 4:45am due to low fuel. The neighbours would've loved that seeing as though any wide-bodies are a rarity even within the curfew!! Anyone living under the ADL approach flight path get woken up this morning?

As requested I am saying g'day to the greater community. Been interested in flying since knee high to a grasshopper but never been able to afford to get off the ground. I am now 30 and wondering have I left it too late? Should I compete with the 20 million school leavers to get a shot in the various cadetships? Are the cadetships any good? If I go the GA route and keep my current job it will take years before I can seriously take up as a full time pilot and even then I will be taking a pay cut - but its what I've always wanted to do. Confused. Assistance and advice welcome.