I don't regularly read all of the posts, so I aplogize for not seeing this earlier.
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Do you or Doug consider the FOFT to be a PTA and what are your criteria?
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I'm not sure what PTA is besides Parent Teacher Association!
I've been in the aviation biz for about ten years and I really haven't seen any significant success stories from kids that do the PFT thing. In my personal opinion, PFT is costly, detrimental to the industry and you might only save a bit of time in getting in the cockpit.
But, at the cost of a tremendous amount of money (!!) and at the negative impact on the rest of the industry.
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Does your experience as commercial pilot and the pilots that you have come in contact with give you a good "feel" to the training available out there?
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Partially. But I keep my ears and eyes open, talk to lots of people and get lots of feedback. I know what worked and didn't work in my career path and have a good nose for who is speaking the truth and who is bending it.
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ERAU is stating that the airlines are coming to them asking for older (or at least more mature) pilots that have been thorough an "airline" training enviornment as opposed to CFI traiing at slow speeds. Do you disagree with this assesment or that the industry moving in this direction or are they just looking for us older "never-was" to take "dream jobs" at the regonals with no potential to move to the heavy iorn.
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Me, I'm a happy ERAU graduate, but I've got to say that this is marketing. I know personally, some of the hiring managers at the top airlines and I seriously doubt if they're looking at flight schools to produce better applicants. Airlines have a pretty good idea what mixture of exposure and experience make a successful job candidate and they screen resumes to look for those traits.
ERAU, like every other flight school, is in the business to make a profit in a very competitive environment. The training at ERAU is fantastic, but where you train is only a small portion of the entire portfolio you've got to build to reach your career goals.