online courses

Veronaut

New Member
I am interested in hearing from anyone with experience with ERAU's online courses. I am considering finishing my degree through that program, & would like to know what other people who have been through it thought about it. As I am at FSI in Vero Beach, I have access to ERAU's extended campus, so I would more than likely combine the two programs. Any info would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

'naut
 
Veronaut,

Yes, there is an extended campus @ FSI, but they are only offering Mx courses this year, according to their catalog. There is another campus at Patrick AFB. How close is that? I am curious since I am a ERAU DE student and will be starting FSI in June. I have had pretty good success with the online classes. I've had a tough time finishing them since 9/11 with work being totally insane since then. I am about 4 classes from graduating and plan on finishing when I get to Vero. I still have all my old notes....

Chunk
 
Chunk-

Thanks for the reply. I can understand how hectic things must be since 9/11. As a former Marine & Gulf War vet, I appreciate all that you & your brothers in arms are doing!

About the online courses, I'm glad to hear that you are satisfied with them. I'm considering a few other online aviation university's, but ERAU is still my first choice. Can you tell me a bit about what it is like? I have the catalogs, etc., but I would like to hear about it from some one who has first hand experience such as yourself.

Patrick AFB is just up the coast, south of the Space Center. As a "crow flies" (or a cadet or a seminole) it is not very far. I don't know how long it would be to drive there though, as I have never done it. I assume "Mx" courses are Masters level?

I saw on one of your other posts that you start in the beginning of June. Good for you. I should be finishing up CIME by then, if not sooner. I got to fly one of the new seminoles last night (there were no old ones used in step 3 available), it was very nice! The Garmin 430 is pretty sweet. By the way, you can download a 430 simulator for free from the Garmin website. If you start becoming familiar with it prior to step 4 it will save you some money while that Hobbs meter is running.

Is there a way to send private messages on this board? If so, I'll send you my contact info. That way when you get to Vero I'll trade you CIME notes for ERAU notes.

'naut
 
Mx = Maintenance

I'm fairly happy with the courses. There are some repetitive classes, but hey, why study twice? Overall, I'm happy, but the govt. was paying 75%. We'll see how happy I am when I'm footing the bill. I did the majority of my degree via CLEP/DSST so it was free and quick. Do you have most of your general education stuff done? Of so, you'll be very happy with just doing the aviation coursework. I still have to do some of the lower level work like MA111 and Physics. I'm pretty much done with the aviation stuff.

So what's the gouge for FSI? Looking back, what advice can you give? What are you planning on doing once your CIME is done? Stay on to instruct at FSI?

Take it easy,

Chunk
 
Chunk-

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I have most of the gen ed done. I suppose it depends on how much transfer credit they allow me. I have an associates degree, & about another year of college on top of that. So hopefully with what I have done, what I am doing now at FSI, & the minimum of 30 credits needed at ERAU I can cobble together a bachelors degree without too much hassle.

I'm happy with FSI. To be honest, I didn't look at any other school. I had people who were actually working as pilots tell me that (other than ERAU) FlightSafety is the place to go. Sure, it isn't cheap, it doesn't have the newest fleet, but it has the best reputation in the industry. Right now there is something of a funk around the place, as veteran instructors aren't moving up, & newly minted CFI's are placed on waiting lists to instruct.

I sort of hesitate on giving advice, but I'll let you know some things that I did that I thought worked well for me. First, I hooked up with some one in my private ground school who was as mature & as motivated as I was to partner with. We study together, we fly together, we motivate each other. We seeked out an instructor that would be a good fit, rather than wait to be assigned one. We are also "crewing" together on flights, which is paying off big on the multi-time. FSI has a "Gemini" program that is good & a lot of people use, but if you are the Gemini student you don't get any flight time. The way we work it with our instructor is we schedule back to back lessons on one aircraft & do our lessons as we fly to an airport at least 50 miles away. One of us flys on the way out, switch at the destination airport, then the other flys back & does his lesson on the return leg. That way all of your muti-time is loggable as cross country time as well!

The biggest mistake that I see people make here is, believe it or not, going at a slow pace. Coming straight out of the military I'm sure that that won't be a problem for you, but there are students here that take many long breaks in their training. They end up having to spend a lot of time reviewing lessons, if not having to redo them altogether, because they are not reinforcing their training by keeping what they learned fresh in their minds. Don't get me wrong, you need some time for yourself & your family too. But you can do both.

As far as my plans, I am going to do the CFI course here. I moved here to Vero with my family, so I will sit on the waiting list to instruct here at FSI. I won't let that time go to waste, though. I need to finish my degree, which will keep me busy. It's hard not to be in a hurry to get to the airlines or corporate world, but I plan to use this down time to get as much training as I can, so that when the inevitable upswing occurs, I will be prepared to take advantage of it.

'naut
 
Hey Veronaut,

If you get picked up by the time I get there, you have your first student!

Just as long as you don't still have a high & tight!!
tongue.gif


Chunk
 
Ha!

No, no more high & tight. I kept it that way for a few years, but as the saying goes, "not as lean, not as mean, but still Marine!"

'naut

By the way...five ground instructors are being layed off this month...I just got signed up for instrument ground, they used to have a class every week, now only every other week...
 
Chunk-

I appreciate the show of confidence, but by the time you get here I'll probably be just starting my CFI training. I will, however, be willing to help you out as much as possible. As I said in the previous post, you should find someone at your training level to progress through the training with, but I will be more than happy to help you out.

'naut
 
Are student enrollments down? In a totally selfish fashion, I hope so! Less to compete for CFI positions against!

Chunk
 
Yes, enrollments are down. On the one hand, as you pointed out, that means less competition for CFI jobs. On the other hand it also means potentially less CFI jobs to be had, as it is enrollments that drive instructor staffing levels.

'naut
 
Yeah, I thought that as soon as I posted that last post. How far down are student starts? I figure there is a "season" for fresh meat like me.

Chunk
 
Honestly Chunk, I don't know anything about student enrollment levels. I hear that they are down, but I have nothing to compare it to as I came here post 09/11.

'naut <----- Startin' step 4 Monday!
 
Step 1 is your PPL, which you already have

Step 2 is cross country time building w/ commercial maneuvers introduced

Step 3 is multi-engine

Step 4 is instrument

Step 5 is commercial multi

Step 6 is applying for job at McDonalds (only half kidding) & comm single engine add on

'naut
 
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