I'm glad you have do well academically for yourself, that will certainly serve you well wherever you go. I still think it would serve you well to apply some critical thinking skills to this discussion and not simply accept the answers which provide validation to the notions you wish to support. That kind of thinking in an airplane will get yourself and others killed.


Because they couldn't possibly have any valid reasons for complaining about it? Ask yourself - WHY are they so biased? WHY are there so many of them? "Because they're all *********s" probably isn't the correct answer.




Let me see if I have this straight:

1. He is favorable toward the school, so he isn't biased, but those with less favorable opinions are biased? Hmmm, seems odd...
2. He went straight from ER to an RJ, so he has no knowledge of what myself and others are telling you in this thread; yet his input is valid (and he's been in this position for how many years), while ours is not? (I'm just guessing, but I'll bet you have well over a half a century of combined experience relating their thoughts with you on this thread)
3. I don't think any one here said ER was bad - I know I didn't; like I said I've flown with a number of pilots from ER, they were fine. I don't doubt it's an acceptable school, but I have great reservations about it's cost:value ratio. The fact is, for flying, there are dozens of good institutions to attend (and I DO NOT believe that ER is head and shoulders above them). It's a school with a very, how should I put it - motivated marketing department (again, ask WHY).

I haven't toured the campus, I'll take your word on that. Certainly DAB is a decent location. Based on everything I've read and heard from grads, be aware that everyone in the community will have you pegged for one of the "aviation dweebs" about five minutes after you get there (though that's not completely different from many other campuses, where you have the college kids vs. the townies).

Being around people who only share your interests and are "like-minded" misses the whole concept of what a university is supposed to be. It should be an amalgamation of many interests, different viewpoints, and backgrounds. Again, based on everything I've read about it, ER falls well short in that category. You should have to work on and English project with a psychology major who has a worldview which is diametrically opposed to yours, and learn how to make that happen - that's part of the whole experience.

I know that isn't what you meant by that, but you should give that some consideration as well.

I'm really not trying to talk you out of going to ER - frankly I don't care where you go; but you should be going with open eyes as to what you are getting out of your experience there.

I AM trying to talk you out of being a [.....] and taking the absolute shortest route to an RJ seat, thereby bypassing some of the most valuable experience you'll have the opportunity to get. The term character building comes to mind - and that's not a bad thing. To be the best pilot you can be, you need some character building experiences. I've already given examples, I won't bother repeating them - but perhaps you should go back and re-read them and contemplate that.

Ultimately, you aren't getting paid to fly people somewhere. You're getting paid to NOT fly them somewhere when the circumstances dictate. You are being paid to be your passenger's last line of defense; over company management, over chief pilots, over schedulers, dispatchers, mechanics, even over the passengers themselves. You need to have the experience and the knowledge to know when to say NO, when to say YES, and when to say MAYBE - and to have and continue to develop multiple contingency plans during the operation.

YOU CANNOT AND WILL NOT GET THAT EXPERIENCE IN A HIGHLY STRUCTURED FLIGHT SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT, AND IT WILL COME AT AN EXTREMELY SLOW RATE AS A FO IN THE HIGHLY STRUCTURED WORLD OF SCHEDULED 121 OPERATIONS!!!

I believe anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. An aviation school exists to give you the foundation, framework, and basic knowledge to flesh out and make these concepts your own reality, but it is not the reality in itself. It's the foundation and the framing of the house if you will.

A 121 operation exists to transport passengers and cargo at the highest levels of safety, utilizing highly structured operations, procedures, and experienced crew members (or at least it should to fulfill it's intended mission). You certainly will gain experience at a 121, but that experience isn't the drywall or the siding that forms the wall of the house - it's the final layer, the stucco, paint, or trim. If you don't have intermediate level, there isn't anything for the finish work to adhere to.

Okay, it's not a great analogy, but it's what I've got.

I guess I'm probably done here, it seems you have your mind made up and would prefer to not be confused with the facts; or at the very least the insights of numerous people who have decades of experience in the matters of which we are speaking.

Good luck to you where ever and whatever you end up doing (I mean that sincerely).