buccirj

Ok, so my situation is pretty isolated but I'm in a tough spot. Mainly the reason I am asking "Purdue vs. iflyElite in Las Vegas is because I may have to stay in Nevada to continue to hold Nevada residency in order to continue to hold jurisdiction of a divorce order (ex-wife and kids live in NY). So I don't have a 100% solid answer yet from Nevada courts if I can keep my residence and jurisdiction in Nevada while as a Veteran student at Purdue, Indiana.

Right, so as for my question on which school should I pursue. Depending on the outcome of when I retire from the Military here in Feb 2016. I either can go to Purdue and have already been accepted in their flight program or I will have to stay in Nevada to keep the jurisdiction in Nevada (no way in hell I'll let her have it in NY and destroy my life...again).

I will be 44 years old when I retire from the Air Force, will be using my Post 9/11 Chapter 33 benefits to attend flight school. I already have a B.S. from ERAU and would need to attend school full time to get the funding from the VA to pay for all the flight training. I already hold a PPL and Instrument ticket SEL. I also have over 3,000 hrs as a HH60G Flight Engineer/Aerial Gunner and am a flight instructor in the Air Force. Yes, I know it is not stick time. I have close to 220 total time in SEL type with my GA flying so far.

My ambition is to keep flying, use my military aviation experience along with a professional pilot program to hopefully gain employment flying in the future. Maybe regional, maybe airlines, hopefully ISR, GOV type contracts with my clearances along with experience.

So the big issue is; do I stay in Las Vegas, keep my jurisdiction and a lot less stress and headaches of divorce court, etc. and attend iflyElite and get my ratings there or possibly give up that jurisdiction (which means a lot of hell to deal with her in NY for another 4 years) and just say "screw it" I'm going to Purdue, which is the flight program I am accepted too and want to get in?

Overall, in the end when I have my CFI, MEI, 1,000 - 1,500 hrs flight time, would it make a difference which school I went to? Would I be more marketable graduating from Purdue or from iflyElite with my already B.S. from ERAU?

I know I'll get a lot more support and funding at Purdue with my GI Bill and more twin time/turbo prop time. In Vegas at iflyElite, I won't have to deal with NY courts and loosing jurisdiction of a support order, Girl friend will make ALOT more money in Vegas, but I'll miss out on Purdue.

Tough choice for me, but what I hope you guys can answer is which school would you pick in regards to quality flight training, future employment?

Thanks!
Rob

buccirj

Hello... Anyone??

BoilerUP

If you have a bachelors degree from Riddle, what do you stand to gain by attending Purdue for another four years?

That, to me, seems like a lot of expense for little practical gain.

I'm a Purdue alum, but in your case I don't see much value in getting another bachelors degree.

USMCFLYR

I'll chime in with a bit of advice.

I'm not sure what you meant by this sentence:
especially the bolded part, but do not ever say this to a pilot recruiter or on a resume.
Those hours in the -60 won't buy you a cup of coffee for a pilot job, and saying that you were a "flight instructor" in the Air Force has a very specific meaning when put into a context with looking for a pilot job - - and if you meant that you were a Flight Engineer/Aerial Gunner flight instructor then you need to be very clear about your actual duties.

whataclub

Knowing because I went to Purdue, I am pretty sure that as long as you are a full time student at Purdue (or any state school for that matter) the state of Indiana only considers you a temporary resident. Meaning you can keep permanent residency elsewhere. However if you end up living in Indiana for more than 6 months after you graduate then you have to declare Indiana residency. Now it has been 6 years since I have been there so you may want to do some research to make sure that is still true.