If you are a new student, I would not worry too much about the waiting list. You will not complete training for 6 months to 1 year, with 1 year being more realistic. You cannot predict what will happen in that time. The people who went to flight school after 9/11 when things were at their worst are the ones who are instructing now, ready for their first job flying jets.
In addition, FSI offers internships which are unmatched in the industry if you have any desire to go corporate. I have posted this before, but will repost it here, because I think it is relevant to this post.
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FSI also offers internships at their Sim centers. Instead of paying $7000 to go play in a CRJ Flight Training Device (I will not mention any names), you can get paid $14 an hour to work at a center as a 'sim co-pilot' (*) and get hours of experience in level D sims. At present there are two ways you can accomplish this: 1. If you are hired as an instructor and the Academy has a waiting list to instruct, you apply for an internship and go work in a learning center. You will have to work some in the various offices initially, but will spend about half your time in a simulator. Usually most of the interns spent the majority of their time in the simulators after completing the initial ground school and sim training, as before you can work with clients you have to complete the same training customers do to get a type rating. Low time interns are not type rated, as FSI usually will not type someone who has less than 1000 hrs, but you get the same training as a paying client who gets a type rating. This internship is supposed to last 3 months, but when there was a waiting list to instruct, most interns stayed at their center until being recalled by the Academy for standardization. 2. If you have completed your contract as an instructor, you can go to a center and get type rated. You are supposed to stay 1 yr, but most centers would probably type you if you received a job offer prior to this. Besides great training, and decent pay (although it is part-time), you will make alot of contacts if you want to go corporate. It is better to spend 2 weeks in the sim with someone looking for a pilot than just send your resume to someone who has no idea who you are. There are even a few interns who who were hired as contract pilots and got 25 to 100+ hrs in a jet while they were on the CFI wait list. They are now instructors at the Academy.
(*) You might be asking your self, 'what is a sim co-pilot?' so here is the answer. Most jets require two pilots, so if there is an odd number of pilots in an initial or recurrent class, the training center has a problem. They can have a regular sim instructor act as co-pilot, which means they have one less sim instructor available to instruct in the sim, or they can have an intern act as the second crew member.
If the person is doing a recurrent, then they usually do three sessions in the sim, each one being two hours long. If you are a sim co-pilot, you will not get to 'fly', but will sit right seat (which is really harder than being in the left seat). You will have to run all the checklist, set up the FMS, talk to ATC, etc.
Initials, which result in the client receiving a type rating usually consist of about 7 sim sessions including the check ride. Each session is usually 3 hours long, and the customer spends 2 hours in the left seat and 1 hr in the right. This right seat time allows the customer to act as a co-pilot and run the checklist, program the FMS, etc. You will get to 'fly' in the left seat for about an hour during this time. The last sim session is the check ride and is about 2.5 hrs long, with the intern being in the right seat the entire time. It is really important to do a good job here, as you have a real influence on the outcome of the checkride.
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