Delta Connection Academy

CapnJim

CapnJim

Well-Known Member
Okay, an old student of mine called up and was thinking about going to this place. He was one of my favorite students, and a good guy. I'd like to help him out with some straight dope, but I don't know a damn thing about it. I tried to get him to wad it up and just go to Skymates, but he seems pretty sold on the joint. Not too sure if much has been posted; a search wasn't too helpful. Anyone been through the program? Worked there? Been hired through them? Thought it was a good investment in thier career? Thought it was a frustrating waste of time and money? Wish well or evil on the owners/instructors? Want to send me money?

Straight dope from people that have been directly involved would be the most helpful. Opion and conjecture will be viewed skeptically, but graded on entertainment value, so if you're going to bash, at least make it funny.
 
The mother of all DCA threads at flightinfo

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=26460

You don't "graduate" from DCA until you instruct there for 800 hours at pretty low pay. I wanna say $10 per hour but that was a while back. You don't get the guaranteed interview until you "graduate".

When you "graduate", you'll have around 1100 total and a couple hundred multi, already meeting the mins at several regionals. What do you need a guaranteed interview for? It sure looks good as a marketing tool, though...

DCA management threatened Doug because of what was said over the years at the JC DCA forum. It wasn't all bad as DCA had some pretty active apologists which somewhat balanced out the discussions. That's a pretty classless move by DCA.

My main complaint was about the way they try to suck people in with the misleading marketing stuff. "Being owned by Delta means everything".

Right.....
 
PERFECT!! +10 for DE727. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks man! I kinda figured they were shifty, I mean the name says it all, but I wasn't for sure.

And yeah, trying to hide thier dirt by threatening Doug shows an astounding lack of integrity. Clearly not the kind of place where I would want a friend to drop 55+ thousand dollars. Glad that kind of information is available.

Thanks all!
 
I liked it as a student there but did not enjoy working there. Pay is very low and no bennies except for the travel but non-reving out of Orlando sucks it hard. When I was a student there the prices were fairly reasonable and they were getting people hired when it seemed no one else was able to. When I was instructing there the prices for students were skyrocketing but the pay for instructors remained the same. When I finished the instructors were paid $10/hr while the instructor fee for the student was $54/hr., and that's a shame.

Marketing there does pump out some pretty big bs but no more than any other academy. Plus if you can't read the marketing for what it is then, you need to wake up and join the real world.

Here is the skinny: Marketing is marketing, Good training, overpriced, planes are old but mx is good, pay is poor, if you instruct there, I can almost guarantee you will get hired by a regional. This being said, mgmt. has had a big shakeup since I was there so I don't know exactly what the story is now, but I'm not too impressed with the fact that they forced down the forum on here...very shady looking whether that was the intention or not.

Clear as mud?
 
I am currently enrolled as a student and I have to say i am happy with my training thus far. (almost done). I have gone from zero time to my cfi in 7 months. However, just like any place, FBO, flightsafety or whoever... it is what you put into it.
The planes are old but well maintained. There is still a carrot of new planes on there way but that remains to be seen.
Marketing is marketing. Thats all I have to say about that. If someone believes a glossy ad as the end all and be all then i blame them.
Overall- I know i made a good decision going there. it works for most and not for others
UPS- yup instructor's still make $10 bucks an hour.
 
husky16 said:
I am currently enrolled as a student and I have to say i am happy with my training thus far. (almost done). I have gone from zero time to my cfi in 7 months. However, just like any place, FBO, flightsafety or whoever... it is what you put into it.
The planes are old but well maintained. There is still a carrot of new planes on there way but that remains to be seen.
Marketing is marketing. Thats all I have to say about that. If someone believes a glossy ad as the end all and be all then i blame them.
Overall- I know i made a good decision going there. it works for most and not for others
UPS- yup instructor's still make $10 bucks an hour.
Click to expand...

So, you finished in 7 months, but you'll have at least two years there at minimal pay teaching, no?

As far as the original post, I havent heard one person say anything good aobut the place..Send him to ATP or Skymates
 
I'm all about Skymates- I wish I had gone there instead of ATP, but my friend still sold on the "preferential hiring" and the "flight benefits". I think it's a load of bollocks, but I dont want to turn the guy off.

husky16, FO SHIZZLE, you guys got the straight dope on those two things?
 
I got a letter about two weeks ago from DCA asking if I've ever considered a job as an Airline Pilot. 'Nuff said. Do some research!
 
FlyChicaga said:
I got a letter about two weeks ago from DCA asking if I've ever considered a job as an Airline Pilot. 'Nuff said. Do some research!
Click to expand...

Well your not a real airline pilot your regional scum with low time hired at a regional stealing jobs away from real mainline pilots and with low pay to boot...you should be ashamed,ashamed!

:sarcasm:
 
Did he train at Skymates, Jim? I can show him around the new joint if you want, A LOT of things have changed since you left and I think most of it has been for the better.
 
As far as preferential hiring- not sure. I havent been there yet. We do get a guarenteed interview which may or may not help. If no one is hiring like a few months ago, what good is an interview? Interview may get you in there but its up to the individual to do well.

Flight benefits- are the same as any delta employee.
 
husky16 said:
have gone from zero time to my cfi in 7 months. However, just like any place, FBO, flightsafety or whoever... it is what you put into it.
Click to expand...

The training program is well structured but a good flight instructor anywhere can do this as well. Sanford is an excellent airport for anyone training to become a commercial pilot - it's an extremely busy C airport with all three parallel runways frequently in use. The instructors vary from piss-poor to great but most lack any real world experience outside of DCA. The maintenance was always super but the pricing for a 1980s 172 with standard avionics was always more than others charged for new 172 SPs. I left after my CFI was completed because of the $10/$54 ratio that was just instituted at the time. Management simply could not justify the high cost for instruction with the poverty line wages. The garuntee is now a joke because I could have interviewed at ExpressJet at 600 hours! However, at the time they were the only school who could prove they were getting pilots hired.

Good luck with your student! Have you tried to convince him that you might be his best option? ;)
 
GT pilot, thank you, but he's no longer my student. I was hired at XJT before I could finish more than his Private, to my great chagrin.

John--
Yeah, I did his private. The guy is...phenomenal. I soloed him at such a low time that I'm not going to post it here because I don't want to hear all the bullsh't (I'll PM it to you if you want. It almost started a lowest-solo time contest; I was unwilling to pursue that.) When I taught him short-fields, we ended the lesson with a short-landing contest, and he kicked my ass. Suffice it to say, the contest ended not at the 16 PAPIS, but at how many taxi lights before the PAPI's we could stop. And he won! He's the best natural pilot I've ever seen, he's a C-130 crew chief with the Air Force, and he's done numerous deployments to Iraq and Kuwait. The guy is the goddamn motherfk'n mother of all students, and he needs to get to the airlines as quick and inexpensively as he can. And he deserves it!

I've already called Luca about him, and told him I'm trying to steer him towards Skymates. A guy of this caliber is wasted on DCA. If I can convince him that the interview is just that-- an interview, and the travel benefits are as unusable as mine are (as Doug said, friends don't let friends SA5) then I think I can convince him to go to a high-quality school like Skymates.

I'd like it if you were his instructor. He needs a guy with some balls, and not these I-don't-fly-IMC-without-GPS • that are running around there now. I'll try to get him out there, and drop a line to Luca or Ryan that you'd be a good choice for his instructor. I know they remember him, but I'm not sure if they know everything about him that I know.

I'd be honored to give the guy a recomendation to XJT; hopefully by the time he's hireable I'll be a captain so the rec pulls some weight. Meantime, we gotta get this guy into that new Seminlole you guys have, the Garmin 1000 182, and everything else.

P.S.-- He will definietly need a little S.eminole H.igh I.ntensity T.raining. Ryan will explain. If you're not into that, lemmie know and I'll non-rev down to Dallas to do it myself. It's been a while. ;)
 
Oh I'm fimilar, just gotta get the qualification flight done in the equipment ASAP and I'll be checked out for it.

BTW We're all the I won't fly in IMC without GPS • now, they put GNS 430's in all the old 172's and the new ones have KLN 94's! But ####, I learned to fly instruments without a GPS, not even a VFR one. My instructor made me do no gyro NDB approaches with the published missed and a hold at the NDB until I was blue in the face, though now if I tried to do one I'd probably kill myself...

If you need to get him my phone number PM me or call Ryan for it.
 
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