Flight Academies

IndianaPilot

IndianaPilot

Well-Known Member
Hello all !! I'm looking for advice from either pilots, instructors, or other students. I'm 25 and single. Currently working as a firefighter/paramedic. I have no strings so I am able to move if needed, and my dad will co-sign for loans and is 100% behind me. I'm now planning on following my dream as an airline pilot. I understand how it's gonna work basically, getting ratings, time building, years at a regional, etc. I'm willing to make the commitment and do whatever is necessary. My only question is this. Which flight school ?? I have my private, and now I've been looking at the larger academies to finish my ratings up through CFI and work as an instructor. What do you guys suggest as far as schools go ? I've researched so many...DCA, Pan Am, ATP, Westwind, TAB express. I want to find the best training available, and also reasonable in price. I'm open to any suggestions. I'm really leaning towards ATP or Delta Connection.
 
ATP. I'm a former career pilot and instructor, and recommend it. Read some posts here on JC to help with your decision.
Best of luck.
 
Given where you are, I'd go ATP. If I had just had by private when I finally discovered them, I would've done it. By the time I ran across ATP, I was already 2/3rds of the way through my instrument.
 
My advice... go visit the ones on your list in person. It is well worth the time and $$$ to make sure you go to each school. You will get a much better sense of where you will "fit" if you take the time to not only visit the school, but take the time to talk to the students and instructors while you are there.
 
Thanks for the info guys !! I will visit the schools for sure and talk to instructors/students. Rausda I didnt forget FlightSafety lol...just forgot to mention them in my original post. In fact they are sending me an info packet at my request.
 
Why not stick to being a FF/Paramedic? With the way the industry is going, you'll have far better QOL.

MikeD
FF/FR, wildland/ARFF/structural
 
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That is great advice
 
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ATP. I'm a former career pilot and instructor, and recommend it. Read some posts here on JC to help with your decision.
Best of luck.

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PSCraig, did you quit the airlines....ie"former career pilot"?

If you are going to do it, ditto what Kellwolf said. I would do ATP if I were crazy enough to do it all over again.
 
I think pscraig meant he did the career pilot program at ATP. I think he's flying for expressjet now.

Anyway, if you want my opinion...run from DCA, flight safety, etc.....
ATP is definately your best bang for your buck. You may consider Ari-Ben as well.
 
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I think pscraig meant he did the career pilot program at ATP. I think he's flying for expressjet now.

Anyway, if you want my opinion...run from DCA, flight safety, etc.....
ATP is definately your best bang for your buck. You may consider Ari-Ben as well.

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What qualifies you to make such a statement?
 
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I think pscraig meant he did the career pilot program at ATP. I think he's flying for expressjet now.

Anyway, if you want my opinion...run from DCA, flight safety, etc.....
ATP is definately your best bang for your buck. You may consider Ari-Ben as well.

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Correct, I'm at ExpressJet now. I don't have any experience with DCA or Ari-Ben, but both ATP and FlightSafety are both good choices.

It's interesting how people trying to jump into this industry compare the flight schools, and the criteria they use to judge them. Cost issues aside, the major flight schools all offer a slightly different version of the same product. Those differences can be significant, appealing to different types of people with different backgrounds. I liked Flightsafety when I was there, and I liked ATP when I was there-very different approaches to the same goal, but flying the same equipment and earning the same ratings.

Get out and visit some of these schools and figure out which one feels right for *you*. In my new hire class at XJT, we have former ATP, FlightSafety, DCA, Pan Am, Riddle, and Westwind people, and we're all doing fine.
 
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I think pscraig meant he did the career pilot program at ATP. I think he's flying for expressjet now.

Anyway, if you want my opinion...run from DCA, flight safety, etc.....
ATP is definately your best bang for your buck. You may consider Ari-Ben as well.

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What qualifies you to make such a statement?

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Now now, Rausda.... Sorry buddy, but I'm going to play devil's advocate on this one (if it wasn't so late you'd probably be picking up your phone about now...
wink.gif
). On this board, there are more than a couple of ATP grads who are already at regionals, and hadn't even soloed yet when I started flight instructing two years ago. Besides that, they are certainly in less debt than I am and most probably have more multi time than I have. Sure, that could be for a variety of reasons...but all things considered, it seems to me that they do indeed get a lot of bang for their buck.

As for Ari-ben...well, I wanted to do the time-building thing combined with my MEI when I was down in Vero Beach, but they were kinda jerks to me when I went in to inquire about it, checkbook in pocket. So, that left me with a bad impression of them.
 
ESF,
The post said run from FlightSafety, and I was curious what experience did he have to say such a thing. I have no problem with ATP at all. I know for certain that you are satified with the training you received at FLightSafety, albeit expensive, it is quality training.

Now, whats new with you?
 
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What qualifies you to make such a statement?

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I was speaking (or typing) purely from a financial standpoint. ATP is a fraction of the cost of flight safety and DCA.
 
So what is it about ATP's "business plan" that allows them to operate at such lower costs that the other big schools? Are they just charging less for the use of the a/c, or is it something else?
 
One possible reason is that ATP is run by airline pilots, not by greedy management types that run DCA and charge $60 an hour for a PCATD that is basically Microsoft Flight Simulator. But I too would like to know more about how ATP does it.
 
Efficiency. ATP offices don't have any admin staff-we did everything from flight and ground instruction to proctoring written tests, cleaning the bathroom, pulling planes into the hangar, and all of the administrative work. New hires are used to answer phones and mail out information, and are trained in the process.The company itself is lean, and the aircraft are used very efficiently-even flights to reposition an aircraft to/from maintenance are used as revenue flights, when possible. This is how you build time in the XC phase of the ACPP-moving planes around. We only did package-price ratings, and instructors are paid a salary with bonuses. The two together allow them to forecast revenue and costs as well as aircraft utilization very accurately. While it's true that ATP is run by airline pilots, their great business model is behind the success.
 
The Academies have a significantly higher cost structure. At FSI we had full time office workers to handle financial aid, accounting, immigration, 5 or 6 full time ground instructors, people to run computerized testing, a bookstore, a cafeteria, a library, guys to maintain the dorms and other buildings, etc.

Add to this everything required in part 141: Chief Ground Instructor, Chief Instructor, various Asst. Chief Instructors, Dispatchers, etc.

Flight Instructor are also paid $14 hr and receive full medical benefits, vacation, and sick pay.

In addition to all this, you do not share the airplane with another time building student on your cross countries. You are either receiving dual or are solo. This along with all the groundschools adds quite a bit to the price paid by the student.

By not providing all of this ATP can operate much more cheaply. The only problem I have with their model is you have to pretty much show up with the writtens completed and receive no groundschool. In a compressed program you have very little time to do required reading and gain knowledge on your own time. You will surely learn alot during your flight training, but when you cram that much into 180 days, there is the opportunity to overlook alot of things as well.
 
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