Originally Posted by
Duckdude
As someone who earned a degree in aeronautical science and owned a flight school for over 6 years, the two don’t compare. I learned so much more about flying over those four years than I could have ever taught my students at my flight school. For instance, we had an entire semester course on turbine engines. My other instructors and I barely mentioned turbines to our students at my school. I had a full semester on global navigation, again barely covered at my school other than some GPS basics. Two semesters of aerodynamics including frequent uses of wind tunnels, versus a chapter or two in a book at my flight school.
Basically, we covered the FAA required stuff and a little bit extra at my school, versus tons of extra stuff at the university.
And that's the problem with aeronautical universities and flying degrees. There is absolutely no need for an entire semester on turbine engines or navigation. More than a week is completely overkill for it to be useful for a pilot. Plus, a lot of these subjects are covered in either the ATP course and initial airline training.