Originally Posted by alwaysflying

I did my flight training at Flight Safety back in 1995 and was the same age as you are. I personally know what a tough decision this is.

A little background. I was working full time, bachelor degree in hand and wanting to fly. Got my Private at the local airport. Took me longer than 40 hours due to work, weather and other commitments. After completing my private, I started building hours, after 2 instructor changes and FBO going out of business, I switched to Flight Safety.

I can tell you it was some of the best training I have had. This school has a standard for instruction and their instructor are expected to perform to that level. Sometimes the instructor at the local FBO is not that interested in instructing you as much as he is in building time till he finds his next job. I can tell you I had a student come to me after 40 hours of instruction from another instructor. The student could do flight planning and navigate cross country. He had no idea how to do any of the manuevers, let alone, believe or not, he could not even land an aircraft. (This is an extreme case.) I can definitely say you will not encounter this at FlightSafety.

You will have to weight the pros and cons of getting your ratings at FSI. I can list a few pros for you.
1. good training
2. a good chance to network for future jobs, this really helps when you are trying to get that first regional job.
3. Build time in multiengine airplanes.
4. Great Instructors, overall, both in classroom and aircraft.
5. Clean, reliable, aircraft. Maintenance is not compromised.
6. Will not be going out of business anytime soon (owned by Warren Buffet)

Here are some cons:
1. Expensive, no doubt
2. Darn Uniform is hot in the summer
3. If they are training foreign pilots, they get preferential treatment, drives you crazy.
4. They expect you to go to training full time with no breaks. Thus is you have vacation you have to notify them so they break you schedule at a logical point, like stage check or check ride.
5. If you want to instruct for them, you usually have to do desk work first.

Another note: I still keep in touch with a few class mate from FSI. It is a great place. I have trainied not only at the Academy, but also did 3 type ratings with them and turbo commander training with them.

Good luck with your decision.