My DCA adventure
I started going to DCA July 10th 2003. I had almost zero time (besides the 1.1 discovery flight that I had at DCA on May 9th Terry Biars...great instructor BTW). When I arrived we had to sit through countless hours of welcome speeches and discussions about what to expect while at the academy. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to sit in uncomfortable chairs and hear every speaker tell us that training here would be like trying to drink from a fire hose. That phrase literally came out of every employees mouth on the first day.
We recieved our PIF (Pilot Information File) that tells you most of what you need to know as a student there... which by the way....I have a friend that is still enrolled there, he told me that the PIF is no longer valid. They made all current students throw them away and forced them PURCHASE the new one for 35 dollars. (The old PIF was paid for as well, it was taken out of your account when you began.) I say forced because you CANNOT fly without it now. They randomly check you as you walk out the door in dispatch and if you don't have it on you, you will not be allowed to fly (this wasn't the case before). According to their new Operations manual, you can even be no-showed for your event because it constitutes not being prepared. To get an idea of what happens when you have a "No-Show", you WILL be charged $50.00 per scheduled block hour for "dual" training activity. Most of the flights you do with your instructor will be scheduled for 2.5 hours which means you can be charged $125.00 for not bringing this book, or even more if its a dual cross country flight. So you are FORCED to purchase it. No-Shows can even be grounds for you to NOT be hired as a flight instructor which I'll talk about later.
So as the week progressed we began ground school. There were 12 people in my private ground school class when it began, one student washed out because he didn't really want to be there in the first place. The ground school was nothing special when I went through it; although the girl teaching it was nice, she was wrong on a few things (which we didn't find out until we had more experience) and she basically just read the information right off of the Power Point presentation. A good percentage of the ground school instructors at DCA are "new" CFI's with little or no experience as a ground instructor so be careful to not allow yourself to believe everything they tell you.
Along with the ground school you are required to go into the Learning Resource Center (LRC) and watch video's from King School (Martha and John King). There is a lot of good information on their video's, but the atmosphere of the LRC makes you wish you were alseep. DCA is supposed to be converting their collection of video's to DVD format, I don't know if they have done so or not, but they told me that when I first began (my buddy just told me they are all on DVD now) The main problem with the video's is the availability. There are only a few tv/dvd players (5 I think) to watch these DVD's which can cause you to wait for an hour or more to watch them (not too great when you have two flying events scheduled as well as ground school and studying for the FAA written that you have to take in two weeks). The good thing is you don't have to finish all the King programs until you're close to your End-Of-Course flight test though.
When the end of ground school neared we had to take a two written tests before taking the FAA written. On both ground school written exams you had to have an 80% or better to be scheduled for the FAA written. So burry your nose in the books and wash everything out of your brain except flying. The flight portion of my time at DCA was fun (I think flying would only NOT be fun if you are about to crash into the ground), but it is true...the airplanes are old and broken down. I'm a tall guy so I was unable to do my flight training in the 152's, I had to upgrade to the 172's. This meant I had to pay more money per hour, but it prepared me for the Instrument course which is done in the 172's. I had a great flight instructor as well. That is one good quality about your time at DCA if you decide to go there. A good majority of the staff there are good people. You can stop almost anyone and ask for help and they will give it freely.
After obtaining my Private Pilot certificate I had a two week hiatus waiting on the instrument ground school. There were only two other people in my ground school class. This is usually how it is as you continue your training at DCA. The private ground school's are usually packed because they start a lot of people at one time. The length of time your training takes depends on you (Don't take too long though because it looks bad, and once again you can jeporadize your employment as a flight instructor there).
The Instrument ground school didn't start off well. I understand that people learn differently, its a well known fact. One thing I learned in private ground school was "Don't believe everything the instructor tells you. Find out for yourself." So as the instructor read the words right off of the Power Point (another instructor doing this) I decided to follow along in the book. The instructor didn't like the fact that I did this, he wanted me to close the book and just listen to him. After trying to explain to him why I wanted to follow along he began to raise his voice at me and cop an attitude. Not very customer friendly because remember. You are a customer there. You will be told this from day one, that YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER, but as you go through your training, you will realize..you're really not. You are just giving them money and they're training you. PLEASE DON'T BE FOOLISH AND TRY TO VOICE YOUR OPINION, AND BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT THE SCHOOL TO PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW. I had to be removed from the ground school because the instructor could not get along with me. He even went to the Chief Flight Instructor and tried to blame it all on me. Of course, being a customer there, your word is worth crap, so I had to PROVE that I was not the one at fault. I brought in a small voice recorder on the third day and recorded the class with the recorder under my book. The class started out with the instructor picking on me (we took a test the day before and I was the only person to only get one question wrong. When he asked who got a question wrong and the other two guys raised their hand he would just explain why it was wrong and give them the correct answer. When it came to the question that I got wrong, he made me stand up in front of the class and explain on the board why i got it wrong, as if he were attempting to embarass me), and then when I advised him that he needed to stop he actually grabbed my book bag and threw it out into the halway. I then took the tape recording to the head of customer service and it turned into a big ordeal. Needless to say they held me back a week to wait for the next ground school and didn't do much, if anything, to punish this flight instructor for his poor behavior. You can ask anyone at the school about that incident and they will probably know what you are talking about. Especially the senior flight instructors.
Which brings me to another point about DCA....Did you enjoy all the gossip spread around during your time in high school? I hope so, because word spreads like wild fire at DCA. By the end of the week, almost every flight instructor knew about me bringing the tape recorder to class and that really alienated me from them. The one's that used to chat with me ignored me now, and the one's I didn't know starred at me like they knew me whenever I was in the room with them. It wasn't until I had to explain the story to a few people that the instructors changed their opinion about me and became friendly again. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY AT DCA!!!!!
My instrument flight instructor wasn't that great. He was a fun guy to be around....if you're not trying to learn how to fly, but there was a time when he actually fell asleep on me during my instrument cross country flight while I was under the hood. He had an attitude like he was trying to just put in his time and go to the airlines, and you will find that at DCA with some instructors. Be vigilant to watch your instructors actions, and if you suspect this...request an instructor change. If you don't, you'll just be wasting money. I finished my instrument rating in great time as I did with my private, and now I was on to my Commercial certificate.
There was really not much difference between Commercial and Private to me, I just had to know my information better, learn a few new maneuvers and be smoother with the controls. The Commercial pilot certificate was the first flight I had to do with an FAA examiner. For those of you on your way to DCA, his name is John Azma. He's a great guy and he's really fair. If you know your information he will move on to the next subject and not try to waste your time or his (which is more than can be said for the stage check instructors. They will dig and dig until you make a mistake, but if it took a lot of diggin they will still give you credit and allow you to move on. If you hear them say...Are you sure about that? Look it up). I think my Mutli-Engine instructor was my favorite instructor. He was funny and really interested in making good pilots out of his students. He even took the time to write a letter of recomendation for me to become a flight instructor at the academy. He was impressed with my performance as were all the people that flew with me. I finished my Multi-engine rating in 24.3 flight hours when above average was 30 at the time I was there. It might have changed since then.
The schedule at the school continues to become more and more exhausting as your training goes on, but it only gets worse when you get to CFI. You are required to give ground briefs to an instructor as if they were a student. You usually team up with one of your instructors other students and do the briefs together. Doing this will help save some of the cost because you split the bill. The only bad thing that may arise from this is that you may be stuck with someone who isn't at the same level as you. My briefing partner never liked to do his own work. He obtained his briefing book from another instructor at the academy (which is done by most of the CFI students) and he used this book to give his briefs. How good do you think a flight instructor like that will be? He trusted everything that a previous CFI student typed instead of making his own book. He would look over the book while we were waited on our instructor to show up, then he would have to constantly refer back to the book while teaching something. There were times when my instructor had to tell me to stop helping him. I would get impatient because we could have been done by that time, but I have to continue to pay because he didn't do his own work. (THIS GUY WAS HIRED AS A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AT DCA. TO ALL OF YOU GOING INTO THE SCHOOL...HE MIGHT BE YOUR INSTRUCTOR ONE DAY!) So a word of advice: It will benefit you more, and those who you teach in the future if you DO YOUR OWN WORK.
When I completed the CFI course I moved on to the CFI-I. This course was not much different except there were less briefs and less flight lessons. You still simulate teaching, but now you focused on Instrument pilot information. When I went through the program the Academy wanted you to have a resume and application completed and turned in at the beginning of your CFI-I course. When the CFI-I course was complete you are put on a list for an interview.
It all depends on when you finish, but the interviews were done on a Thursday. During the interview process you arrive in the morning for testing. You sit in the room where you took all of your FAA written exams. The tests are long, and there's really no way to prepare for them. The questions are odd, sort of like a personality test. There is a portion where they show you pictures without words and have you put them in the order you believe they are supposed to be in by the events in each picture. Then there is more testing.....it all reminded me of SAT's in regular school. And you are timed on each portion; trust me, there is NOT enough time. You end up doing the Chrsitmas tree to hopefully get a correct answer. Any answer is better than no answer on those tests. After the testing there is a short break for lunch, and the interview process begins.
You step into a room where a review board (usually consisting of three poeple) are waiting for you. You sit down and go through a normal interview. It wasn't normal for me though. Everyone told the same story about how the interview went for them, the same questions popped up in most interviews, but don't rely on it because you may be the lucky one. My case was different from everyone else at the academy you see because when I was 17 I had been convicted of felonies. This was back in 1997, and it was now 2004....7 years had gone by. A lot of change occurs in 7 years, but apparently this review board didn't want to think that way.
The first thing that came out of the interviewers mouth was, "So, tell me about these felonies." Now, when I looked into flight training, I took this into consideration, and I made sure to ask how it would affect me. I didn't want to spend the amount of moeny that I would on flying if I couldn't get a job afterward. I was told, "Oh it won't have much affect on you." I heard this from my addmission counselor as well as Mr. Patrick Murphy. I even had an interview with Mr. Murphy during my flight training so he could find out the details. He advised me that I would not be able to go to the airlines until 2007, but I would be eligible for a job as a flight instructor at the academy.
Mr. Murphy was one of the people on the review board and I saw the worst case of discrimination during that interview than I had ever seen during previous interviews since my release. The entire interview lasted about 5 minutes, and 98% of it was me talking about the felonies. Then he asked me three regulation questions and they told me to have a good day.
I went home and waited for the letter in the mail. They mail you a letter via FedEx three days after the interview to tell you if you are hired or not. That was the most devastating letter I read in my entire life. All of the hard work, and all of my short term goals had gone down the drain at that moment. To this day it bothers me that because of something that happend as a minor (which I will be pardoned from soon because I wasn't even guilty to begin with) caused me to not be hired.
One thing you have to understand about DCA, there is a great slew of people going through there at any given time. It's a big money market there, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. They can't hire everyone that applies there, so if there is any flaw in you...you better know somebody that works there, and that person better be important. It is very evident once you get there that they are partial.
The guy that I carried for the most part in CFI was hired not because of WHAT he knew (because it wasn't much), but because of WHO he knew. If it were always about how well you perform as a student, then they would have the best flight instructors in the US. The curriculum is good there, I give it that, and if you do better than others with the same classes, you should be top pick. This just isn't so.
During your decision in any flight school look at these things.
MONEY is #1. What makes a DCA student different than another student? Are they teaching you something that you can't learn somewhere else? Is there a DCA regulation book thats different than the FAA reg's? Are the Commercial maneuvers you learn there special DCA ONLY maneuvers? No. So look at the cost. My flight training at DCA cost me exactly $64,757.10. That included all of my ground schools, flights, and any other activities that I had during my time there. And I finshed with decent time. I only had 260.7 flight hours when I finished.
#2 ENVIROMENT: You are required to be there in uniform, you can't even come to the academy and study in the LRC if you have no events that day unless you are in uniform or you will be told to leave. Get used to it though, because when you get to the airlines you will be required to be there in uniform also. The difference is...you're being paid to be there in uniform, not paying to be there. The equipment isn't all that great for the amount of money that you invest. The friend that I have there told me that they will be purchasing all brand new Diamond airplanes soon, but I heard that 2 years ago. You can count on a lot of cancellations for maintenance, and you will find a lot of airplanes that have been written up for something and maintenance doesn't really look into it enough so they return it back to service. Then when you preflight the plane you find the problem and end up cancelling. It's not always maintenances fault though. They have a great maintenance there; its just that most of the airplanes are old and abused with little time to fix them all at once. The scedule is hectic as well, don't count on having much of a life except for your KNOWN days off because you wont know what the schedule is like the next day until 17:30 at the latest.
There are only 2 days a year that you don't fly. Christmas and Thanksgiving. You have to put in a request for a Personal Time Off in order to have enough days off to buy an ailine ticket if you live out of state and want to go home to see your family for the holidays. If you are one of the last people to put in a PTO then you can forget it. They need a certain number of activities each day to make a profit, and they know how many people they can allow to leave. If they reached that limit before you put in a PTO then you're not going anywhere.
If you think this is wrong and go anyway, then it too will jeporadize you getting a job there as a flight instructor.
You can only put in so many PTO's, fortunatley for me, Im a florida native, so Christmas Eve 2003 I passed my Commercial lesson 9 stage check and got in the car and drove home to Ft. Lauderdale, then left Christmas night and came back for my scheduled event the next day (which by the way was cancelled for maintenance, and the next day after that for weather so it was a waste for me to drive back).
These are the things you will experience as a DCA student. So lets say the worst case scenario occurs with you as it did with me. What's next? What can you expect if you don't get a job at DCA as a flight instructor? Are you still guarentted an interview withing the Delta Connection system? You have to understand that statement and how understand the cunningness of marketing. DCA is part of the Delta Connection system because they are "Owned by Delta". So you are guarenteed an interview...as a flight instructor. If you don't get a job with them then forget about a guarenteed interview with the airlines.
Okay, I'll give you a couple thousand dollars and you'll guarentee me a job INTERVIEW. You can get a job interview anywhere if you apply and they're hiring, so its not really that great of a deal. At least not on your end.
Most of you that go through DCA will come out as low time pilots, with less than 300 hours (if you start at zero time and go through at a standard pace). So where can you get a flying job with less than 300 hours? I still don't know...I have been out of DCA since October 4th 2004 and I still haven't found a flying job....LOL. There are other flight schools that will hire you, like Pheonix East in Daytona or Regional Airline Academy, but most of the time, the people who were hired at DCA applied at those jobs while they wait for their start date, which is usually from 3 to 6 months after your hire date. They don't tell the people they work for that they intend to leave and go back to DCA in a few months, so when you apply theres no opening's.
I did get hired at Regional Airline Academy in Deland, but I have some GREAT things to say about them. Anyone considering going to RAA should really read my post that I put about them next. I'll tell you all about how they make you sign a contract that keeps you from leaving because if you do they will charge you 50% of the cost of the course on top of application fees and other funds. So if you decide that you don't like RAA, which a lot of students I talked to there do, you can't leave unless you want to give them a few thousand dollars.
Back to DCA, I know it sounds really negative, but if you do decide to go there regardless of the countless posts about them, I just wanted to give you a heads up as well. There are some good things, like I said, the cirriculum, and the people. Other than that, you're just paying for the name Delta Connection Academy. So when you apply at the airlines, it MIGHT help you out. The captains at American Ailines that I'm friends with told me that it does have some bearing on wether you'll get a job. Who would you hire? Someone who went to a small FBO in Smalltown USA or someone who invested time and money to go to a part 141 school?
Remember this though, people who train at FBO's get jobs with the airlines too, a pilot is a pilot, what makes you great is your desire to be great. I hope this helps somehow in your decision about DCA. Take care.
