School or academy?

[freedom34]

Which one one would be the best route, school or academy? If school, what school? If academy, which one (RAA, ATP, LangaAir, etc...)?

My goal is to become an airline pilot but I am tight on financially. I'm willing to put what ever time I have free for this but I will continue with my current job until I complete.

[Timbuff10]

Definetly your local flight school... Sticking with your current job will make it tough too. Not impossible but tough!

[DE727UPS]

If you're a "keep your current job kinda guy", then I'd highly recommend the local flight school. The academies have their place...but I'm not much of a fan.

[desertdog71]

I agree, local school. Oh and Langa is tied in with Gojets. Thats a whole other story there.

[Flying Ninja]

Originally Posted by freedom34

Which one one would be the best route, school or academy? If school, what school? If academy, which one (RAA, ATP, LangaAir, etc...)?

My goal is to become an airline pilot but I am tight on financially. I'm willing to put what ever time I have free for this but I will continue with my current job until I complete.

If you're tight financially, you might want to reconsider changing into aviation as a career goal. It's very expensive to get training and there is absolutely no guarantee that you will make it into the airlines. Anyone that tells you differently is trying to sell you a program or make money off of you. Do some financial math and figure out how much it would cost you to complete your training with a local FBO or flight school. Then compare what the other schools are offering.

I graduated out of CAPT and they pretty much screwed me with job placement after graduation. I wouldn't recommend them. Just be aware that they are being bought out and may change their branding. Be very careful with these programs that promise you that they'll fulfill your dream. An hour of flight training is an hour of flight training. I got my PVT certification with a freelance CFI and compared to CAPT instructors, he was no better or worse. The airlines only care about your experience and your certificates issued by the FAA (which means if you meet FAA PTS standards, you're good). Your goal is to get at least 1000 hours of total time and 100 hours of multi-engine time. More is better for competition, but most regionals will look at you with at least that many hours.

I say this from experience, you really need to have a lot of money to get into the industry where you're not going to make a lot of money. You may be thinking about a student loan for flight training but I'll tell you this, for the amount of money I dumped into my flight training, paying back at 8% isn't sitting well with me. I could have dumped all that money into a house and have something to show for it AND fly on the weekends on my terms. Think hard on why you want to be an airline pilot. If you think it's glamour and girls, it's not. Everyone I spoke to tell me that eventually it becomes just like another job, and you're away from friends/family all the time.

I suggest you start out with your PVT with a local CFI and go from there. Going to a program doesn't necessarily mean anything. Remember, they can't guarantee that you'll get hired no matter how pretty the advertisements look.