Mercedes Benz or a Ford Pinto
Lobster or Roman noodles
Gulfstream 5 or Cessna 150
..........
Pan Am Academy or MAPD

Sorry, I needed something to really help me convey my opinion to you. When I saw the title of this thread, I knew there was no question. Pan Am for sure.

You are getting out of the military. In order to have a decent career in aviation, you need two things right now.
1. A 4 year college degree
2. All your pilot licenses and ratings

If you decide not to get a 4 year college degree, you are costing yourself a good MILLION(s) dollars over your career. The fact is if you don't get a 4 year college degree, your career will likely end at a regional airline, making $90,000 a year. With a college degree, your career is much more likely to end at a major airline making $150-180,000 a year. BIG DIFFERENCE! And that adds up over 10,20,30 years!

Here is why you want to go with Pan Am. At MAPD, you will spend 2 years getting your basic licenses and ratings, and a worthless associates degree. I say worthless because in aviation, an associates degree is going to open the same doors that a high school degree will open. At Pan Am, you will spend something like 8-10 months getting your licenses and ratings. Mesa pilot developement is a waste of over a year of your life!

Pan Am will give you CFI/CFII/MEI certificates. You will be a much better pilot, and when you get interviewed at another airline (because you won't spend long at Mesa), your odds of getting hired a lot better if you were an instructor. They say you are three times as likely to remember things if you teach it to someone else (hence why MOST airline pilots were instructors at some point in their life.)

You don't want to go to Mesa. Rickair flew for Mesa, and he is telling you he would quit flying if he had to go back to Mesa. Pretty profound! Mesa is a craphole. Just stay away!


To sum it up, if you go to Pan Am, you will get your 4 year college degree and do flight training while in college. Afterwards, you will instruct for about a year (become a much better pilot), move onto a good regional, and eventually onto the cherished jobs in aviation, captain at a major airline! (making good money and enjoying life)

If you go to MAPD, you will spend 2 years getting your associates and flight training. Then you will fly for Mesa (making LESS than you would as a flight instructor). You will be stuck at Mesa for several years because you won't be as marketable to airlines without instructor time. When you get enough experience to finally leave Mesa, you will probably go to another regional (because majors won't likely hire you without a 4 year degree), starting over at $20,000 a year an reworking your way up the latter. You will probably retire flying for a regional airline.
Or after spending 2 years at MAPD, you might decide that a 4 year degree is crucial to your future success, and go to college. But that route would put you 2 years behind the other way.

There is no question in my mind. I am a big supporter of FBO flight training, but PanAm is a fair airline academy, especially if you have VA benefits to pay for it. Don't sell you career and yourself short by going to Mesa.