Hello Shinysideup,

If you've just started doing research for CAREER TRAINING OPTIONS, please don't pay too much attention to the very extravagant posts in some of these forums.

I am in a very similar situation as you : hi tech career, high management, trying to start a career in aviation before its too late.

After many months researching different airlines and pay schedules, I finally am beginning to get over the depressing wages these guys (all of them) pay FOs. It is appalling really. ANY regional will pay you up to half of what you pay your cleaning lady per hour, most of them a third of it.
But I know I'll have to take that abuse during my first 1000 hrs of airline flying, I guess it's a fact in this stupid career we can't get our heads off, so just get over it as soon as you can.

Back to your question now, I believe you wanted to know about the MESA SCHOOL, not the regional airline.
If that is the case, I believe you will get very different oppinions.

First of all, you may or may not have realized that even the big name academies have bad reviews every now and then, but they are points outside of the curve, like you said. Someone that had a bad experience. That's all.

MPD is probably one of the few pilot schools that have generally good reviews, and very few bad experiences have been reported in these on-line forums.

I have a very good friend that started their Ab-initio program in Aug 2004 (even though he already was a PPL) and have been tracking his progress.
Really serious training, military style (management formerly with the USAF).
I was very impressed with the amount of stuff he has to work on and how serious it has been. He did solo cross-countries with their Bonanzas all over the western states, including at night, usually called me from some of these locations. He is really happy.

What comes after that ?
MPD doesn't garantee interviews with anybody other than MESA AIRLINES, but their graduates have been hired by other companies on a regular basis.

I would give them serious consideration at your stage.
One detail : You don't get any discounts or "breaks" for previous experience (unless you already have a Commercial/IFR). Even if you're already a PPL, you'll still have to go through THEIR PPL curriculum. The only advantage if you're already a PPL is you get to log PIC time on most of these early flights.

In the end it's all a matter of budget, location and where you want to fly later. Do more homework, find out which relationships have been established between these academies and some regionals and you'll have a better idea.

One last thing : 2 CFIs from my local Flying Club have been hired by American Eagle (one in 2004 the other earlier this year), even though they never went to any of these big name academies. They did all of their licenses right here "at home" and then flight instructed locally for 2 years or so.
Which means, the old-fashioned way of building time as a CFI is still very much valued by the airlines.