Comments on Regional Airline Academy or PEA

[AaronPilot4life]

Greetings!

There wasn't any info on Regional Airline Academy in Deland, FL and only a few posts on Phoenix East Aviation in Daytona Beach, FL so I thought I'd try and get some info on here. I'm moving to the Daytona Beach area in December and trying to decide between Regional Airline Academy of Deland or PEA in Daytona Beach. Does anyone have any experience or comments regarding these schools? I'll be going there with a Commercial Pilot Certificate, Instrument rating, ASEL. Any help would be appreciated.

Aaron~

Fly Safe!

[moxiepilot]

From what I've observed it is no better, no worse than any other flight schools. A neighbor, who is a student there, has gotten lost on every solo cross country he has taken. That doesn't make me comfortable.

Also there is a school there that flies Cessnas and King Air's as well as a sky dive operation - so it is a busy training area for a non towered airport.

-mox

[Doug Taylor]

Heck, it's not just PEA and RAA! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[EDUC8-or]

I hear bad things about PEA. I know a guy who is a controller and he said every time he hears Alpha Tango (PEA's tail #'s end in AT) on initial callup he cringes. LOTS of foreign students and instructors. There's nothing wrong with being a foreigner, but often the freq gets congested because someone is stuggling to communicate in English. Also, there's a reason the prices are so low. Take a look at the fleet, it's old and beat up. They keep the MX department busy. That being said, it's very cheap so if you don't have to many MX cancellations you can get a rating done for a decent price. Just be careful before you deposit lots of money, check to make sure you can get a full refund of your account.

I know a mechanic at RAA and he is also very busy, but their fleet isn't as beat up as PEA's. Deland is a nice airport that can get very busy, but not as bad as Daytona. They offer a CRJ type rating, which seems a little useless to me. I would rather have the airlines pay for my training.

If you come visit just take a very close look at both schools and ask LOTS of questions. Take a look at the fleet and see if you can take a discovery flight for 49 bucks. I've been flying in Daytona for 4 years, but don't have personal experiences with either school so just don't take my word for it. Good luck with your decision.

[kellwolf]

And don't just limit your search to RAA and PEA. There are a lot of schools in the Daytona/Orlando area. Some good, some not so good. Check out Ormand Beach, too.