Originally Posted by rickair7777

Wrong on both counts.

Airlines expect you to have licenses and a certain amount of flight experience (and a 4-year degree for the better ones). Where you get the licenses doesn't matter at all unless you were a military pilot. Why pay a huge chunk of change when you can get the same thing in your home town where you can live with family, do it at your own pace, and maybe hold down a job?

The unfortunate reality is that very few of the high-dollar "glossy-brochure" flight schools offer a better product:

1) Their instructors are the same low-time instructors you would find anywhere else...if they were highly experienced, high time CFIs they would quit and go fly for an airline, or go freelance and make $50/hr instead of $10/hr. You might get a high-time CFI who happens to have too many DUI's...

2) Their airplanes are same as anywhere else. The only difference is that they spend your outrageous tuition on new paint jobs, so the airplanes look good on the outside to impress the next batch of potential suckers. In the future you might see some schools getting glass-cockpit training airplanes, which might actually be beneficial to an aspiring commercial pilot.

3) They often brag about maintenance...well the FAA regulates what Mx has to be done, and pretty everybody does exactly that. There might be a few small operations that try to take Mx shortcuts, but they usually end up losing all of their licenses and facing serious fines.


The reality is that they try to convince you that by paying more, you get a better product. What actually happens is that they sell you the same or worse product as smaller schools and FBO's, and pocket the huge price difference...very lucrative.

I understand that as an ex-military guy you naturally find a structured, apparently organized training process to be more attractive than a small operation, but the costs vs. benefit are just too far out of line.

If you disregard what people are telling you here, I can almost guarantee that in 4 years when you are spending every dime of your regional FO salary on loan repayments you will know exactly what we are talking about and will REALLY wish you had listened to the voice of experience...my hindsight is 20/20 !