Great discussion here. People can say what they want about these programs but in the end they are no different than going to Embry Riddle, Purdue University, or any other professional aviation type curriculum where most of our Pilots are comming from nowadays anyway. And bottom line is... these guys get hired.

In fact many opponents of these things I think are just frankly jealous and ****ed off because these guys get hired.. while they aren't. I know a handful of really ****ed of 35 year old CFI's with 1000 total time and 100 multi who can't even get an interview for flying Caravans. They are really good at holding an airspeed in a C-152 but couldn't brief you on an approach plate to LGA to save their life.

Paying your dues as a CRJ FO makes a lot more sense than spending 7 days a week flying C-152's. Also I should mention that 8 of the guys in my friends ERJ Class at Chitaqua were from the Delta COnnection Academy.

In addition another friend went through DCA when it was called Comair Academy... he was a first officer for Comair on the Brasilia and still wasn't even old enough to buy a beer. Now he's flying for a major airline upgrading to Captain in 2 months (MD-11). He's barely 30 years old.

Mesa sounds great I know a little bit about it but not too too much so check it out. And on top of that DEFINATLEY check out Delta Connection academy they will fly you down for free. These programs average 85k start to finish. Mesa is cheaper i think in the 60k range.