CLR4ILS said:
Sorry, wrong again...... The cost of flight training as a whole (ie. PPL through MEI) has nothing to do with advanced airline programs. It has to do with A/C price, Fuel pricing, insurance pricing, and the one that pisses me off the most....... $55.00 an hour flight/ground instruction especially at an FBO. Of course the people in charge will alway's blame our worst enemy, INFLATION.
First, if you're gonna quote something, either preview the post or learn to quote correctly. Here's a little lesson:
Code:
[quote] - begins a quote sequence.
[ /quote ] - ends a quote sequence. Make sure you follow the [quote] with
[ /quote ] when you are done quoting, otherwise the quote won't surround
the text.*
*Also, make sure you don't put a space between the "[" and "/". I couldn't do this in the example above or it would quote the code...sorry.
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Whew, with that done -
You missed the boat entirely on what Kell was saying (and what I quoted you saying).
Basically, flashback to 90's. Alot of regionals, including, yes, COMAIR, and CoEX (now ExpressJet) were PFT/PFJ. The people who were getting hired were those that would pony up. The unions, looking out for the fellow workers, finally got the airlines to stop doing this. I really am not sure how, but they did.
It was an unfair practice that gave anyone willing to put up $10k-$15k the 'ability' to get hired. How the $%#@ fair is that? Capitalism at its best, I suppose.
Now it seems, more and more airlines are going to these bridge programs, because they produce pilots that have a proven track record of being able to pass training. If more and more students see this as 'the' way to get an airline job, more and more people will do it, flooding the market with people that paid between $12,000 (PACE, which I think is the cheapest) to $22,500+ (FSA I believe) for the 'ability' to get an interview. Again, how fair is that? This is what he's saying, and I agree with it. Although right now you have a choice as to build flight time or cut 6-18 months off your timebuilding days by attending a type rating course, several years down the road that choice might not exist (i.e. regionals will require courses to simply apply) and the cost to obtain a low-paying regional job just got higher.
On the issue of low-timers in the cockpit - sure they can do it. If they couldn't, they wouldn't be there. However, I already stated that at 300 hours I had a 1900 SIC rating (done through my college, not a bridge program), I successfully proved I could pass the checkride. But after another 1500 hours of instructing and then getting into an RJ sim (and this time getting paid for it!) I realized exactly what I was missing back then, and I am MUCH better prepared to sit in the front and interact in a crew environment because of it. It isn't about training by that time - it's about experience. Two totally different things. Here's an old saying I think applies:
You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
(note correct use of quotes).
I don't care how good you are, 9 hours of operating in an IFR environment (mostly in class E going into uncontrolled airports - 7 for instrument, 2 for multi @ MAPD) won't give you ANY understanding of the IFR environment no matter how you've been trained. You've gotta go out there and do it. I've witnessed time and time again multi students going to an unfamiliar airport other than FMN who were totally lost on the approach and comms...not good
.
~wheelsup
