Prospective Student

[gruntman]

Hello everyone here on Jet Careers. I am a first time JC person here and have been looking at these threads over the past year or so while I have been in the military. I am so glad to be home and am ready to start doing some flight training and pursue my dream and goal of becoming an airline pilot. I know that many times these threads can be a bit “spirited,” negative (to say the least) and biased. However, I have done A LOT research and spent A LOT of time and energy looking at different flight schools and academies and would like some no nonsense constructive information about these schools. My situation is that I have a wife and 2 children (ages 1 and 3) and am 32. So I really don’t want to mess around. I want the best training for my money and get the most out of it and I want to use my VA money, with the possibility of a direct path to an airline. I have done some flight training before I joined the Army at an FBO (never finished my Private) and don’t really want to do that because I didn’t think that it was as well structured and most of the instructors there have been instructing for more than 2 to 3 years and waiting around for multi engine time and waiting for someone to interview them, as well. So here is some of the information I have found. And this is the order of the order of schools that meet what I am looking for. Keep in mind I will need some living expense money of around $2K per month and my wife is a nurse and makes pretty good cash! Talking to most schools they say it takes around 10 months or so to finish as a student. I figured 14 months to be safe. I may not need it, but it is good to be worse case senerio. Since most schools pay you around $1,000 per month as a CFI, I figured I would have to cut back then in my living expenses when I get to that level or have my wife work overtime! Also, I figured in the ‘average’ pay for the airlines they say they place their graduates with to see what the first couple of years would be like. I put these in order of schools that I liked, as far as placements, airline agreements, pay after training.
1- Regional Airline Academy- Cost: $72,000 with type rating/ Time to Airline: 14 to 24 months/ Plus costs with living expenses @ $2K per month while a student for about 14 months is $28K bring the total to $100,000. Airlines hiring are Express Jets, American Eagle, Trans States. Avg. pay for first officer 1st yr $21k, 2nd yr pay $34k. VA approved.
2-Flight Safety- Cost: $76,000/ Time to Airline: 12 to 24 months/ Plus cost of living @ $2k per month is (at worst 14 mos to finish as student) $104,000. Airlines hiring are ASA, American Eagle, Express Jets. Avg pay 1st yr 20k, 2nd yr pay 37k. VA approved.
3- Delta Connection Academy- cost is $68,000/ time to airline: 16 to 24 months/ cost with living expenses @ 2K per month (at worst 14 mos as a student) is $96,000. Airlines hiring: Comair, ASA, Express Jets, Chautauqua, American Eagle, SkyWest, Tran States. Avg Pay for FO position 1st yr 23k and 2nd yr pay is 38k. VA approved.
4- ATP- cost of program from 0 to airline is $81,000 for quickest path/ time to airline is 12 months. Cost with 14 months of living expenses @$28K is $109,000. Airlines hiring: Express jets, Chautauqua, Great Lakes, American Eagle, Cape Air, Pinnacle. Avg pay 1st year FO is $19,000 and 2nd yr pay 32k. No VA.
5-Pan Am- cost of program: $68,000/ time to airline is 24 months/ cost with living expense of $28k for 14 months of training is $96,000. Airlines hiring: Chautauqua, Great Lakes, Mesaba, Piedmont, Chicago Express. Avg pay 1st yr is 19k and 2nd yr pay is 29k. VA approved.
At the end of the day, I found that these schools are all going to run me around $100K when all is said and done. The main thing is, which school is going to get me the job with the best regional airlines in the business and which school has the best contacts with the airlines. Any feed back from alumni from these schools or current students, would help.

[CLR4ILS]

First things first....If a school says that they have airline agreements and YOU WILL BE HIRED AT SAY 12-18 MONTHS, this should signal a major red flag. On their websites and in their marketing department they may LIST regionals that have hired their graduates in the past but that does not mean you will get hired with them. Do not be misled by the whole "gauranteed interview" ploy. If you dig deep enough you will find a very high washout rate on the interview. At Flight Safety, they train you well and prepare you for your interview. Flight Safety instructors get picked up at very low hours because of their experience and multi time.

IMO....

1. Look at quality of training. What does the syllabus have to offer? Ask for a thorough breakdown of the program. How much multi time in the program and how much as an instructor? Do they do their instrument training in the twin? Some will argue that doing your instrument in the twin is not much of an advantage but I found it very beneficial (faster plane, complex A/C etc.).

2. What do their facilities have to offer? I can tell you that Flight Safetys are probably the best I have seen. I made use of every amenity they had to offer. The more tools to help you through the better.

3. How well are the A/C maintained and how big is the fleet? Flight Safetys 100+ A/C are all on a 50 hour progressive MX program. This means that the A/C you are flying are getting roughly 3 annuals a year instead of one. I NEVER had a cancelled flight due to MX or lack of availablity at Flight Safety.

4. When you finish your CIME program, what options do you have at the school? AT FSA you have some of the best options I have seen. You can interview with one of the three airlines to RECIEVE A COE (conditional offer of employment) and move on to do the advanced level D SIM training and then fly for that airline, interview for an instructor position where you will gain valuable experience and a good amount of multi time, or apply for an internship at one of the MANY Flight Safety SIM centers throughout the world.

5. Finally, price.... at the end of the day all of the schools you mentioned will come out around the same. It really is up to you what you will spend. I myself finished the program early and under budget by showing up prepared for each flight and flying 5-6 missions per week rather than 3-4. I have friends that spent much more going the FBO route and they didn't get anywhere near the quality training I did. Like I said, it is up to you.

LAST.....narrow it down to at least three schools and tour ALL of them. Go in prepared with a list of questions and do not let their marketing department beat around the bush on your questions. Be prepared to be misled at some of the schools (FSA will not do this). Ask to see all of the A/C and MX facilities. Ask to see the frascas and SIMS (if the school has them...FSA has four....2-level D's and 2-level C's). Ask to sit in on a ground school session. and make sure you talk to as many students as you can. Put the students on the spot with respect to quality, price, and satisfaction.

That is all I have time for right now. I chose FSA for all of the reasons stated above. It is a great school. The instructors and staff are very professional and will help you with anything and everything. If you have any more questions PM me.

Good luck...ILS

[Snow]

Actually the Citation and King Air sims are both level B I think. Not that it really matters since as a prospective direct track pilot you won't be using either of those sims. Just keeping the record straight. Oh and ILS is a good person to talk to, he knows what he's talking about, he was a big influence on my decision to attend FlightSafety and I'm glad I did. Good luck with your decision.

[rickyrhodesii]

Just ran across your post gruntman...so what have you decided?

I'm in kind of the same boat as you...I'm in the air force, about to get out in April 07, looking to put my VA bennies to work for me.

looking foward to your response!