Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
I did not go to GIA or any pilot puppy mill for that matter. Here's how GIA works:
You have to have a commercial with multi-engine, instrument rating as a minimum. You pay Gulfstream somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 to go to Beech 1900 training (it costs GIA about $10,000-$12,000 to actually train you). After you pass training, you fly as a first officer in the Beech 1900 (Continental Connection) for 250 hours. You make minimum wage per flight hour with no per diem or benefits while you are flying. After the 250 hours, Pinnacle used to give preferential interviews where the majority of GIA pilots went. GIA practically held your hand through the interview process. The ones that didn't make it could pay GIA around $11,000 for another 250 hours or just walk away. I am not sure how it works now. I think Pinnacle stopped the preferential interviews after the "410 dudes".
Ah, I see. So really these pilots could have gotten great training before and even done some significant instructing before enrolling. I was thinking the university did all your training and you went straight into a 121 operation with the bare minimum flight time and no extra flying around by yourself to experiment. Personally I think spending the 30K on renting a small twin or single engine to go out with your friends and fellow pilots to get a real feel for what airplanes do in all scenarios to sort of get that stick and rudder/ hard IMC no autopilot experience would be way more worth the money. Yeah, it might not be the "jet time" that the airlines want to see but in the long run it would really make your skills a lot sharper.
When I was upgrading to a higher level of instructor at the college I taught at, they required me to take the 172's set up for spins and work on teaching spins alone without another upgrade instructor there to guide you. There really is nothing like the feeling of doing that the first time all alone with no one there to take over if you scew up. Of course if you are high enough those planes are almost impossible to get into anything unrecoverable but it still builds a certain level of character. That way when you are with the student you are a lot more compitent and you know your limits.
I had a fellow newhire in indoc class that had never flown alone except for her required mins during training. Once you get to the 121 stage of things you will probably never fly alone again. And alone I don't mean all by yourself but rather the sole PIC. So your friends could be with you. That's scary knowing she would one day become the PIC of a jet full of PAX having never had to experience a situation where she had to make all the right decisions by herself. I have tons of flying around as an instructor and the thought of becoming captain one day is still a little overwelming. I'll do it when I'm good and ready. Not just because I can.
So now understanding this GIA and if I had the money to do it, yeah it could be benificial if you are good and ready to set out and be a professional pilot. Because those days of the real fundamentals of flying are over once you land that job as an airline pilot. Sure you learn lots of stuff but stalls and stall recovery and simple airmanship start to slowly fade as you get into larger and larger aircraft that are fool proof and for the most part fly themselves. But I think it is a dum decision to use as an accelarator just to get you into a jet because you don't want to go out and experience things that will one day make you a safer pilot. That's just not good pilot decision making from the start.
Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
"410 dudes"
That's just wrong.......
