OK... I'll bite... I'll answer why a pilot may want to do this to himself or herself. By the way... I would not... I build my time as a CFI, CII, MEI and I do not subscribe to pay for training or working for free, but I think I know why people do it.
A pilot finally gets his or her Multi Commercial Instrument and by this time has invested about $40-50 grand into this career. His or her total time is hovering around 350 TT with maybe 40 multi hours. They are out of $$$. The pilot wants to fly for the airlines and most regional's mins are 1,000 TT / 100 multi... HMMMM how to get from 350 to 1,000. The pilot does not want to pay $$$$ out the butt anymore and comes across a deal like the one posted here. The reality for this pilot is that building Multi turnbine time by working for free is a lot more economical than paying $250.00 per hour in the local flying clubs multi. The reality is that these days it costs soooo much to build multi time...there are a lot of desparate pilots who want to get there career off the ground that this type of thing unfortunately is appealing
Okay so let's do the math here. You have 350 hours and you need 1000 so that's 650 hours. If you fly around 80 hours a month that's going to take you a little over 8 months, and since you want to work for a regional you'll have to add on another month or two to get through the hiring process, get a class date, etc. So best case scenario you can maybe start a new job 10 months later, (and that is an extremely rosey scenario considering another 9/11 could happen tomorrow and then you would be up the proverbial creek). So you have to relocate god knows where and support yourself for at least 10 months: gas, food, rent, car insurance, cell phone, (divorce lawyer if you're married). Even if you live very frugally you're going to spend at least $800 a month on living expenses, and I hope you don't have any debt! And of course when you do get another job you'll have to relocate again so hope you have some more cash stashed away somewhere. For any sane person to try and pull this off they would have to have a minimum of 10-15K in the bank, transportation, and no personal ties holding them back. (BTW 10-15K is enough money to finance your cfi/cfii/mei and buy a Kia.) Now let's play what if:
1) You get an accident/incident/violation on the job =you're screwed
2) You get fired
=you're screwed
3) For some reason you quit
=you're screwed
4) The economy decides to take a dump
=you're screwed
That last one is a b#tch. How far are you going to go with you 650 hours of Metro time when there are furloughed airline pilots taking up all the good jobs and you don't even have your CFI? If everything doesn't go excatly how you calculated it's a recipe to wind up broke, bitter, and unemployed. Sure there's always a chance it could "pay off", the economy stays good and a year later you get on somewhere, but what exactly have you gained? You took a huge risk and 10 months later you're sitting in class next to a bunch of 1200 hour CFI's who got there in the same amount of time that you did and they did it the right way and got paid for it. (And if I were doing the hiring I would be looking really hard at anyone who's first and only job as a pilot was in a turbine aircraft). But hey don't take my word for it, if it sounds good to you DO IT! I'm not telling anyone what to do, but I promise you sooner or later, you'll regret it. If you can't see the zillion potential pitfalls here then you absolutely deserve the job.
And regarding the trust fund kids, you think they're going to waste their time with this when they can go to Gulfstream and wear a pretty uniform? Trust Fund Kids are spoiled and lazy, there's no way they're going to go bust their hump for some dirtbag when there are a lot better options out there for those with unlimited resources.
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