Originally Posted by
Flyboy8784
I went to FlightSafety Academy in Vero...i loved it there...but since ive left...my friends who instruct down there say it has taken a turn for the worse.
The program you are refering to is called the "Direct Track" program. They run it with ASA, TSA, Expressjet and Eagle. Its basically a crash course to get you ready for Airline ground school. You interview with your airline of choice and they give you a COE (Conditional Offer of Employment)
Then you do a couple of seminole flight as a crew learning your airline callouts. Then on to ERJ systems for 2 weeks and finally 2 weeks of Level D sim training in the ERJ 145. No type is issued.
When i left it was 28,000$ for the program. At the time it was a bargain for guys who were career change pilots who didnt have time to instruct. But we all know what PFT does to the industry. You also needed 300/35 for Eagles program and 400/100 for Expressjet. ASA and TSA had no hour requirements
From a friend who still teaches down there, FSI has dropped the cost down to 17K and if you get on with Eagle, they pay for 10K...so you only end up paying 7.
FSI instructors are hands down, some of the best trained in the world, the program has like a 99% success rate. But with the way regionals are hiring...why spend the extra cash?
Has I was searching the web, I saw that EAGLE was sending people down there and supposedly picking up the tab, that you were given per diem and room and board, but no paycheck. Just trying to verify as I get ready to pick what regional I wish to apply to, so just comparing. I heard that ASA is going to 250/50 come January, 2008. No, I don't do PFT. As you said, all the regional are hiring, its' a pilots' market right now, so just checking.