I'm a flight student at a local part 141 school. Enrolled a year ago, so far have 65 hrs in a 172, spent over 12.000 and just getting to cross-country flying. Looks like it's going to be another 5-6K before I get to the check-ride. Cost of PPL= approx.17.000
Since the FBO route doesn't seem to work out for me (I have already spent twice the amount that my school had promised I would spend on getting my Private), I am considering ATP. I know the opinions about this school vary, but so far I've heard more positive comments than negative, so I'm most likely gonna go for it.
Now, with the ATP's there are two options: the 50K "professional" and the 65K "professional"+"internship" with GIA(I'll just call it PFJ)
Ok, I know that most people frown on the option of PFJ, but I was just doing some math here, and here are my thoughts...
Apart from the moral issue of paying for flying instead of being paid, there's also a finantial side, which comes down to this:
The "professional"+PFJ program is 15.000 more expensive then plain "professional". It buys me 250 of multi time on top of whatever is included in the "professional".
250 hrs in a Piper Commanche at my local FBO would cost me 54.500+fuel costs. Suppose I found someone to share the cost with - then we'd each spend 23.000 (and each of us would log 130 hrs PIC, which is
).
SO, I looking at the cost of these two options:
Route#1 - "
professional"+250hrs twin time at FBO
50.000+23.000=
73.000$
Route#2 - "
professional"+PFJ
65.000$
Another issue is that the loans for these two programs come from different banks.
The loan for the "professional" is thru Sallie Mae and the rate is ridiculous - 12%! (plus I need another co-signer, which is a problem )
The loan for the "prof"+PFJ is easier to get and the rate is 4%.
So, looking at the financial side, it seems that the PFJ option is actually... worth it in the long run??
Please let me know what you think about this.
Oh, and about the CFI rount of time-building- that's definitely, definitely a possibility which I consider and which I'm going to take and that's something which I will do no matter how much I dislike teaching..No quesiton about that.
But what I am concerned about is getting the ME time. In our FBO VERY FEW instructors get to fly the twin, even though they are all MEIs. We just don't have a lot of ME students, so most intsructors have hundreds of SE time, but very little multi. That was the issue for a lot of them when the hiring boom came and went, and they coundn't even get an interview because of insufficient ME time.
So I would certainly like to use the opportunity of getting some ME time, but I have to think ten times now that there's so much controversy about the ATP's "internship".
Again, I'm not expecting to go through with the traning and PFJ and get on with an airline right away, but maybe this "internship" can be an all-right option of getting some ME time and then getting back to instructing in C172, hoping the next hiring boom is on it's way?