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Doug, Doug, Doug,
You crack me up. You gave me grief about Flight Safety’s ASA program V.S. the “instructor route” awhile back and now you back people that say Part 61 is just as good as 141. Yes you are careful how you word things but it is obvious what you are saying. Why did you choose ERAU? It wasn’t the price. You could of just as easily went to a local FBO 61 school and saved money. Do you feel you would have received the same quality training at a 61 FBO school that you received at ERAU? I believe you went there because of their reputation for quality training and you knew their name would be beneficial on your resume. Am I right or wrong?
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Part-61 is as good as part-141 but they're almost two different products. I worked for a part-141 school, but chose to teach my students under FAR part-61 because I had a lot more liberty as an instructor to teach the way I had learned and freedom to experiment with syllabuses (syllabi?
) Part-141 is good, but different. It really depends on the situation.
I like mustard on hotdogs, but it's a little disgusting on chicken.
Why did I choose ERAU? At the time I thought it was the only way that I could become a pilot. Remember, I'm from a small town south of Fresno so most of the information I impart is from trial and error.
I really had no idea as a 16 year-old kid from the San Joaquin Valley of California from a town with a population of 25,000 that there was any other way!
Want to do something for a living? Major in it, right?
Which colleges offer majors in becoming an airline pilot? Umm, ERAU...UND... FIT...
The concept of studying one subject, but flying on the side was an unknown concept to me at the time. Remember, there was no internet, aviation forums or anything beyond special ordering an outdated book from the local mall B.Dalton Bookseller.
ERAU was a fantastic school, but very expensive and only one of many choices available when trying to get your career started off.
I'm happy with my education at ERAU, but I think I'd be doing a disservice if I constantly championed and cheered for the university. Personally, I believe tuition has gotten way out of hand.
About the ASA Program versus the Instructor Route: I still stand by my beliefs that you're going to be a better rounded pilot if you plot a career route through well-traveled paths. If a potential student has his heart set on taking his last part-141 checkride and then hopping into an RJ seat at 300 hours in today's job market is being largely mislead. In fact, there's some beachfront property I'd love to sell him in Tucson.
I was there, believe me. I got out of ERAU with a BS in Aeronautical Science and thought my credentials alone would put me on the "A-List" for jobs in a rough economy. It took a year of starving, a lot of soul-searching, reflecting quietly on park benches and a few hundred bounced resumes that gave me the epiphany that there are no short cuts and I went and completed training for a CFI/I and started looking for work.
Did the ERAU name help me? I don't know. Skyway highly valued UND grads because most of their checkairmen were UND alumni. Delta probably didn't care because of their high preference for former military pilots.
It probably did open some doors, but I think drive and ambition was more important. I know a lot of my former alumni that are working as bartenders, at Wal Mart and went back to school for other degree fields -- and we had the same education and probably the same opportunities.
Could a specific name open doors for you? Sure, but if a person competing for the same job has equal qualifications as you, interviews a little better and has the 'can do' spirit rather than "Hey, I went to the 'Harvard of the Skies'" mentality, I think we know who is going to get the job.