DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?p=451910&posted=1#post451910
Comments on DCA
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"I'm presently attending DCA. I've earned at least my private there, and am still enrolled in the program.
First, as mentioned, DCA offers outstanding preparation for the airlines; you will learn far more than a 61 school (I attended one until about 12 hours) and the quality of the instructors, in general, is also superb.
The aircraft suck. straight up, the school would be far better off getting equipment that actually works.
With the private syllabus you will be using Cessna 152s... all are at least 30 years old, and every fourth or fifth flight will have to be incompleted due to maintenance problems. When problems are written up on an aircraft, by my experience, its a toss of the dice as to whether they will do anything about it. I wrote up one airplane for the same problem three times in two days.
The school chages more per hour for these aircraft than Avion, next door, charges for its BRAND NEW cessna 172RG equipped with GPS and all decked out. I am not aware of FSI or ERAUs cost, so i cannot compare to them.
The school charges 60 dollars an hour for any time you spend with your instructor; the instructor gets ten of that. the school pockets the remaining 50.
Ground school costs 60 an hour PER STUDENT. With twelve students in a classroom, thats 720$ PER HOUR the school is making. The groundschool instructor earns ten of that seven hundred. The school pockets the rest.
I am unaware of where that money goes. the learning aids are mostly broken and resemble something found buried deep in the recesses of a ghetto public high-school's basement. The demonstration E6B in our classroom was broken and unuseable for classroom demonstrations; a student had to hold the plate in place while the instructor tried to spin it without dropping it. Their model airplanes used for demonstrating flight principles are basically dollar-store foam toys held together with masking tape. The VHS tapes in the Learning Resource Center are a Joke, the tracking is so far off on them that the TVs are unable to account for it... the pictures skip and jump so much as to be completely useless for instructional purposes, but we are still required to watch them. Most students have given up trying to watch them, and simply sit in front of their TVs reading the Gleim... a practice actually recommended by several instructors.
Required in the school's syllabus is several hours of time on their PCATDs. This is essentially a 386 computer with MSFS 1994 on it and a yoke/simulated radio stack attached. You will see them in the tour. The school charges over a hundred dollars an HOUR to use these.
I will concede that the PCs are somewhat useful for flight training, however, definitely NOT worth $100+ an hour. Maybe ten. The same equipment can be purchased for a home computer for under 1500 dollars. You HAVE to spend over fifteen hours on them for the training. It would make more sense for each student to simply buy his/her own.
The "simulator" time costs only ten dollars less than aircraft time.
The instructors are incredible. Intelligent, well-taught, and proficient, i am convinced that the school DOES hire top-notch pilots as instructors. They are all friendly and have a genuine love for aviation.
I wonder what would happen if the school happened to hire an instructor with enough initiative to start a workers Union. The school stresses that it simulates an airline environment. . . ;-)
There are definitely people i would reccomend this school to... i recommend taking advantage of the free tour and checking it out for yourself. Ask to see the inside of the aircraft. Ask questions. If it sounds like the admissions guy is dodging a question, keep digging. Find out all you can to see if this school is right for you."
I think it's interested he talks about unionizing the CFI's. Seems like there was some talk about that not long ago. They did it at Riddle and, while not much quality of life stuff changed much, at least they are getting indoctrinated into the way things work at an airline.
I think the CFI's at DCA are really getting shafted and feel like they can't rock the boat or lose their prized interview guarantee. Of course, they new what they were getting into when they signed on....
Comments on DCA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm presently attending DCA. I've earned at least my private there, and am still enrolled in the program.
First, as mentioned, DCA offers outstanding preparation for the airlines; you will learn far more than a 61 school (I attended one until about 12 hours) and the quality of the instructors, in general, is also superb.
The aircraft suck. straight up, the school would be far better off getting equipment that actually works.
With the private syllabus you will be using Cessna 152s... all are at least 30 years old, and every fourth or fifth flight will have to be incompleted due to maintenance problems. When problems are written up on an aircraft, by my experience, its a toss of the dice as to whether they will do anything about it. I wrote up one airplane for the same problem three times in two days.
The school chages more per hour for these aircraft than Avion, next door, charges for its BRAND NEW cessna 172RG equipped with GPS and all decked out. I am not aware of FSI or ERAUs cost, so i cannot compare to them.
The school charges 60 dollars an hour for any time you spend with your instructor; the instructor gets ten of that. the school pockets the remaining 50.
Ground school costs 60 an hour PER STUDENT. With twelve students in a classroom, thats 720$ PER HOUR the school is making. The groundschool instructor earns ten of that seven hundred. The school pockets the rest.
I am unaware of where that money goes. the learning aids are mostly broken and resemble something found buried deep in the recesses of a ghetto public high-school's basement. The demonstration E6B in our classroom was broken and unuseable for classroom demonstrations; a student had to hold the plate in place while the instructor tried to spin it without dropping it. Their model airplanes used for demonstrating flight principles are basically dollar-store foam toys held together with masking tape. The VHS tapes in the Learning Resource Center are a Joke, the tracking is so far off on them that the TVs are unable to account for it... the pictures skip and jump so much as to be completely useless for instructional purposes, but we are still required to watch them. Most students have given up trying to watch them, and simply sit in front of their TVs reading the Gleim... a practice actually recommended by several instructors.
Required in the school's syllabus is several hours of time on their PCATDs. This is essentially a 386 computer with MSFS 1994 on it and a yoke/simulated radio stack attached. You will see them in the tour. The school charges over a hundred dollars an HOUR to use these.
I will concede that the PCs are somewhat useful for flight training, however, definitely NOT worth $100+ an hour. Maybe ten. The same equipment can be purchased for a home computer for under 1500 dollars. You HAVE to spend over fifteen hours on them for the training. It would make more sense for each student to simply buy his/her own.
The "simulator" time costs only ten dollars less than aircraft time.
The instructors are incredible. Intelligent, well-taught, and proficient, i am convinced that the school DOES hire top-notch pilots as instructors. They are all friendly and have a genuine love for aviation.
I wonder what would happen if the school happened to hire an instructor with enough initiative to start a workers Union. The school stresses that it simulates an airline environment. . . ;-)
There are definitely people i would reccomend this school to... i recommend taking advantage of the free tour and checking it out for yourself. Ask to see the inside of the aircraft. Ask questions. If it sounds like the admissions guy is dodging a question, keep digging. Find out all you can to see if this school is right for you."
I think it's interested he talks about unionizing the CFI's. Seems like there was some talk about that not long ago. They did it at Riddle and, while not much quality of life stuff changed much, at least they are getting indoctrinated into the way things work at an airline.
I think the CFI's at DCA are really getting shafted and feel like they can't rock the boat or lose their prized interview guarantee. Of course, they new what they were getting into when they signed on....
