Post from flightinfo....long

[DE727UPS]

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthr...d=1#post451910

Comments on DCA

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"I'm presently attending DCA. I've earned at least my private there, and am still enrolled in the program.
First, as mentioned, DCA offers outstanding preparation for the airlines; you will learn far more than a 61 school (I attended one until about 12 hours) and the quality of the instructors, in general, is also superb.
The aircraft suck. straight up, the school would be far better off getting equipment that actually works.
With the private syllabus you will be using Cessna 152s... all are at least 30 years old, and every fourth or fifth flight will have to be incompleted due to maintenance problems. When problems are written up on an aircraft, by my experience, its a toss of the dice as to whether they will do anything about it. I wrote up one airplane for the same problem three times in two days.
The school chages more per hour for these aircraft than Avion, next door, charges for its BRAND NEW cessna 172RG equipped with GPS and all decked out. I am not aware of FSI or ERAUs cost, so i cannot compare to them.
The school charges 60 dollars an hour for any time you spend with your instructor; the instructor gets ten of that. the school pockets the remaining 50.
Ground school costs 60 an hour PER STUDENT. With twelve students in a classroom, thats 720$ PER HOUR the school is making. The groundschool instructor earns ten of that seven hundred. The school pockets the rest.
I am unaware of where that money goes. the learning aids are mostly broken and resemble something found buried deep in the recesses of a ghetto public high-school's basement. The demonstration E6B in our classroom was broken and unuseable for classroom demonstrations; a student had to hold the plate in place while the instructor tried to spin it without dropping it. Their model airplanes used for demonstrating flight principles are basically dollar-store foam toys held together with masking tape. The VHS tapes in the Learning Resource Center are a Joke, the tracking is so far off on them that the TVs are unable to account for it... the pictures skip and jump so much as to be completely useless for instructional purposes, but we are still required to watch them. Most students have given up trying to watch them, and simply sit in front of their TVs reading the Gleim... a practice actually recommended by several instructors.
Required in the school's syllabus is several hours of time on their PCATDs. This is essentially a 386 computer with MSFS 1994 on it and a yoke/simulated radio stack attached. You will see them in the tour. The school charges over a hundred dollars an HOUR to use these.
I will concede that the PCs are somewhat useful for flight training, however, definitely NOT worth $100+ an hour. Maybe ten. The same equipment can be purchased for a home computer for under 1500 dollars. You HAVE to spend over fifteen hours on them for the training. It would make more sense for each student to simply buy his/her own.
The "simulator" time costs only ten dollars less than aircraft time.
The instructors are incredible. Intelligent, well-taught, and proficient, i am convinced that the school DOES hire top-notch pilots as instructors. They are all friendly and have a genuine love for aviation.
I wonder what would happen if the school happened to hire an instructor with enough initiative to start a workers Union. The school stresses that it simulates an airline environment. . . ;-)
There are definitely people i would reccomend this school to... i recommend taking advantage of the free tour and checking it out for yourself. Ask to see the inside of the aircraft. Ask questions. If it sounds like the admissions guy is dodging a question, keep digging. Find out all you can to see if this school is right for you."

I think it's interested he talks about unionizing the CFI's. Seems like there was some talk about that not long ago. They did it at Riddle and, while not much quality of life stuff changed much, at least they are getting indoctrinated into the way things work at an airline.

I think the CFI's at DCA are really getting shafted and feel like they can't rock the boat or lose their prized interview guarantee. Of course, they new what they were getting into when they signed on....

[flyonthewall]

This guy sounds like a trouble maker to me. I bet he just can't hack the program and is looking for ways to bash it. That's very interesting. He did forget to mention that the school charges about $300 to administer the FAA written exam for each rating. I believe $65 is a price I was quoted elsewhere for the same test. I was informed by an administrator at DCA that student accounts are still charged the $300 for the FAA written even if you go elsewhere to take the test. This is obviously done to help pay for these high dollar training aircraft.

[yankee_one]

Ground work is actually $54 per hour, while close to the $60 he quoted, still less than FSI. I agree that the videos in the LRC were horrible, but they have been replaced with DVD's. The PCATD's are actually $55 per hour.

[ QUOTE ]
This guy sounds like a trouble maker to me. I bet he just can't hack the program and is looking for ways to bash it. That's very interesting. He did forget to mention that the school charges about $300 to administer the FAA written exam for each rating. I believe $65 is a price I was quoted elsewhere for the same test. I was informed by an administrator at DCA that student accounts are still charged the $300 for the FAA written even if you go elsewhere to take the test. This is obviously done to help pay for these high dollar training aircraft.

[/ QUOTE ]

Flyonthewall,
can you please show me a copy of where we charge $300 for a written exam? We only charge $92 for the test. But thanks for pointing out the fact that we should have no need to pay attention to your posts after such a blatent lie.

[stuckingfk]

[ QUOTE ]
Ground work is actually $54 per hour, while close to the $60 he quoted, still less than FSI. I agree that the videos in the LRC were horrible, but they have been replaced with DVD's. The PCATD's are actually $55 per hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is absurd to charge $55/hour for a PCATD. I know a specific place that charges $63/hour for a Frasca SE and $85/hour for a Frasca ME.

This same place also charges less for ground, which is much better, and pretty sure the professors get paid more than $10 an hour. What a ripoff.

[montanapilot]

no doubt thats horrible. One of the FBO's around here only charges 35 an hour for a PCATD.

[pavelump]

[ QUOTE ]
Ground work is actually $54 per hour, while close to the $60 he quoted, still less than FSI. I agree that the videos in the LRC were horrible, but they have been replaced with DVD's. The PCATD's are actually $55 per hour.


Flyonthewall,
can you please show me a copy of where we charge $300 for a written exam? We only charge $92 for the test. But thanks for pointing out the fact that we should have no need to pay attention to your posts after such a blatent lie.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure where you get your facts yankee_one. FSI ground schools are billed at $20/hr. Our PCATD's are free. And our ground brief rate is $55/hr., of which instructors get $14 + bennies (believe me, I'm not bragging about that either ) . FAA writtens are $60.

[yankee_one]

Pave, sorry for any confusion, I was refering to the $55 per hour ground brief rates.

[flyonthewall]

[ QUOTE ]
But thanks for pointing out the fact that we should have no need to pay attention to your posts after such a blatent lie.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL as if I will lose sleep becuase some lying little Delta Connection Admissions slime won't read my posts. My comments were not posted for you.

[yankee_one]

I'm lying? I'd love to hear how I'm doing that. I simply stated that the FAA Writtens are $92 a piece vs your claim of $300, but I am the lying slime..now thats funny. And the name calling really helps prove your point.

[chrisdahut1]

Heres some figures. When I did my training, I paid:

$28 an hour for flight and ground instruction
$150 (approx) for each ground school
$58 an hour for a C-152
$60 per FAA knowledge exam
$10 per hour for use of a Frasca 142.

Same CFI job. Same interview. Same end result (airline interview and job). Plus I got a 2 year degree out of it, and on my way to getting my 4 year.

You'd be amazed at some of the rates you can find, with a little research.

[Flip]

And they're off..........................

[BrowardAirman]

The bottom line is either ya like DCA or ya don't. It is usually the same for any other academy or FBO you go to. I was at a sattelite location in South Florida. The training that I received was excellent, my instructor top notch and she will go far in the industry. Was it expensive...yes. The schools financial aid department reports that it will cost, on average a little over $8,700 for the private, about $8,200 for instrument, $12,800 for Commercial, $8,100 for Multi and $9,000 for flight instructor training. Again this is the average cost of training for each student. Some cases it was higher...some lower, and it does not include cost of attendance for the community college. Goto any FBO website and compare the cost of flight training. In most cases it is cheaper. Everything depends on what a person is looking for. Do you want the structure of a Part 141 school, or the flexibility of an FBO? Some FBO's are structured like part 141 without the cost, but ya really have to hunt around for that. Maintenance...well that is hit or miss where ever ya go.... again...do the homework before writing the check. Another thought, some will argue that "Part 141 will waive the required 50 cross country time for instrument and 250 hrs for commercial, so you are saving money there" Again I say do the home work. The "required time" needed plus the FBO taining costs will pretty close to equal what ya spend at a 141 school. In some cases maybe even be less than Part 141. Final thought and I repeat...do your homework, talk to people, write a list of pros and cons, then when you are satisfied...get out the checkbook, but most of all have fun with the flying and study often. Studying in between lessons is by far the key to making your flight training as least costly as possible