Pro Pilot Course

[fly8slep]

Hey, I'm trying to get some info on the school also I will be going there to tour the place in September. For students who have been there, can you give me an estimate of how long it would take from first day to getting ready for an interview at the airlines? How's the fleet maintained/saftey, are planes always avialable? I was doing my private but ran out of money at about 30 hours can I finish it at Aviator, or do you have to have it to start the pro pilot course? One last question, I'm planning on taking a loan for at least half the costs, do you know how long the grace period is for these loans?

[NickH]

How long it takes depends on many, many factors. It's possible to complete the pro course in less than 6 months, but some do take much longer.

The fleet are well maintained. They aren't new, and some of them aren't pretty, but the maintainence shop does a fantastic job of fixing the day to day problems. Scheduling is normally handled a few days in advance. Should your plane go down you'll oftenbe able to get another (especially if you have a checkride), but sometimes flights do have to be cancelled.

You can finish your private at aviator, and it might be a good thing. You can come down and finish your private and see how things work at the school before comitting to doing the pro course.

I can't help with loans I'm afraid.

[MusketeerMan]

www.flyaviator.com

Should be able to find everything there...

Give them a call.

[Catherine]

Finish your private here as Nick mentions...it's what I did because I ran into the same problem you did...running out of money back home. I figured since I hadn't been able to visit the school beforehand and since I had to have it done, I'd come here and use that as a good gauge to check out the school...and I've been here ever since! Figure 6-8 months to finish the course, depending on how fast you study, whether you have to wait out a hurricane, regular bad weather days, etc. Things happen...it's life.

After you finish the course, if you stay to instruct, it depends on how many students you have and how often you fly as to when you'll be ready for an airline interview...it also greatly depends on the state of hiring in the regionals as to how quickly you'll be ready. If minimums jump up to 800 hours, it will take longer than if they drop them to 500. That's really hard to estimate...especially if you have a couple of specific airlines in mind you want to get on with and they have slightly higher minimums or such.

As MustketterMan said, check out the website...it will tell you more about the financial stuff and you can see some more detail on the school and the planes we fly. The grace period depends on the company you get the loan with...Sallie Mae was wanting repayment to start immediately from some stuff I read, I know Key Bank is six months after graduation before they start looking for anything unless you want to pay interest in the meantime.