My 2 cents...

Having been laid off last year from a great job... I feel your pain.

I would strongly advise against paying for a type rating yourself-- that can/will set a precedent that the rest of us may be expected to live up to in the future.

Keep in mind, in 2009 pilots were the number 4 profession with job losses in the USA. There are a **ton** of pilots on the street right now, and if you all start paying for training, it will be bad for everyone in the future.

I know friends that have been laid off for over 2 years. Some of them have jobs outside of flying (not happy about it, but doing what they have to).

I went 4 months, and consider myself very lucky it was that short. However, I went into police academy in my time off because the state I was living in had something like 15k police officer positions open. I didn't know when I was going to get a job, and had to get insurance for me and the family, and even a small paycheck beat nothing at all. You have to do what you can, but paying for training makes no sense.

Something else to think about, if you pay for a type rating on a plane you have never flown, you are now out 30 large with zero time in type... and still may not be able to get hired anywhere. If a company wants YOU, then they can pay for you to be trained on their aircraft, you just have to sell them on needing YOU and not some dude just cuz he has a type rating.

I went on a while, but I hope this helps a bit... Good luck to you.