skyrunner1500
Well-Known Member
Hi everybody!
I am the one who sent DE727UPS the PM inquiring about who really owns DCA.
The question didn't really came from myself, but it developed itself with my discussions (and sharing of my impressions) with european students who are looking for flight training in the US and also the repetitive discussions on the major message-boards in german-speaking world, over here.
All I tried to explain to them was, that there is no real advantage in going to DCA over any other flight school, what is nearly impossible to explain with the advertisement of DCA going on over here since a couple of weeks. They simply mislead people by promising things that are by far out of any reliability. Another problem that I encountered, was, that most former european students who attended DAC do not have enough self-confidence to stand up and admit that they made a wrong decision by going there and spending a small fortune. Hey, everybody makes mistakes. But that's a very common psychologic phenomenon that you can probably observe with most schools, not only limited to flight schools, that former students who were not happy with the trainings they got decide to stand up and tell how it really was. You mostly only hear from the happy students..if everybody is happy with what's going on in his/her school, why do we discuss different schools? It shouldn't matter where you go, you'll be happy anyways.
I decided to post the PM in full length and direct the folks from Europe to this thread. Maybe somebody can give some input on it...
I am the one who sent DE727UPS the PM inquiring about who really owns DCA.
The question didn't really came from myself, but it developed itself with my discussions (and sharing of my impressions) with european students who are looking for flight training in the US and also the repetitive discussions on the major message-boards in german-speaking world, over here.
All I tried to explain to them was, that there is no real advantage in going to DCA over any other flight school, what is nearly impossible to explain with the advertisement of DCA going on over here since a couple of weeks. They simply mislead people by promising things that are by far out of any reliability. Another problem that I encountered, was, that most former european students who attended DAC do not have enough self-confidence to stand up and admit that they made a wrong decision by going there and spending a small fortune. Hey, everybody makes mistakes. But that's a very common psychologic phenomenon that you can probably observe with most schools, not only limited to flight schools, that former students who were not happy with the trainings they got decide to stand up and tell how it really was. You mostly only hear from the happy students..if everybody is happy with what's going on in his/her school, why do we discuss different schools? It shouldn't matter where you go, you'll be happy anyways.
I decided to post the PM in full length and direct the folks from Europe to this thread. Maybe somebody can give some input on it...
Hi Don,
I'm currently having a hard time, trying to steer away potential students from DCA, since DCA is on a heavy marketing trip very active in german-speaking Europe(Austria, Germany, Switzerland) right now.
I've read through a lot of posts in the DCA Fourms and from the opinion of current and former students it would never come to my mind that I put a foot in one of their buildings or spend a buck even only on one of their soda-machines.
So, I'm trying to make them clear that DCA is nothing than a huge ripoff and you'd never get your money's worth compared with good instruction out of it. I've come so far that some of the potential students(which happen to be alot in the last months) reconsider their decision. I tried to explain to them, that there is no real connection with Delta, although the name signifies it and they advertised that they are 'owned by Delta'. Everybody over here thinks that they will be trained directly from Delta, because of the name. And DCA even supports this misleading of european students by telling them that they'll get a job with Delta(!) right after their graduation with the bare minimums for the CPL. And all this without a green card or working permit, just on a student visa.
Here comes my question: do you know of any official links that I might direct them where they could check out for themselfs that DCA is not owned by Delta(I think DCA was even sold a couple of weeks ago?) and Delta does not hire Europeans right after their CPL? They seem not to believe me, what I'm telling them, but I guess I'm just going to let them go there and check it out themselfs....at least they won't be mad at me afterwards.. you are very active in the DCA and FSA Forums and I really value your opinion(I have the same opinion), so I hope you can help me.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this PM and I hope to hear from you soon,
Maurice
P.S.: Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about flying in Europe. I can tell you, that you're more than right, that most european captains have to babysit 'newbies' that get a F/O spot with only 200hrs for up to 18 months...the capts I have talked with, told me that they fly the plane more or less 'solo' when they fly with a new F/O. NO matter where they did their training. Even if they were in an ab-initio program paid and trained by the employing airline...no matter how good the instructor or the program is, you can't train experience, you build it with time.