Academies
 

I think alot of peeps here would agree that you are going to blow a ton of money if you go that route. Why fork over 50K when you can go from PPL to CFI in under 20K from a local flight school. In the end you'll have the the same license and ratings and not be in debt until you 40. On the other hand if $$ is not a problem for you then spend away !!

Thank u for that information, thats what ive been reading everywhere, i just needed a third opinion,........oh and one more question and this is 4 anybody who can help. my dream is to fly bizzjets for Netjets, does anybody know the best way to go about this goal.

My words exactly.

Ok another question i would greatly appericiate an opinion on is what is the best route to the Netjets corporation

My recommendation would be to do your licenses and ratings at an FBO. It will save you at least $20,000 for the same training. At DCA, you will pay $55 an hour for instruction. At an FBO you will pay about $35 an hour for instruction. The flip side, when you want to instruct to timebuild, DCA will only pay you $14 an hour. The FBO will pay you $25-35 an hour. BIG DIFFERENCE! At DCA, you will pay $105 for an old cessna, while at an FBO you will pay $80-90 for an old cessna. At DCA you will pay over $200 an hour for a multi, while those cost about $150 at an FBO. As crazy as these prices are, the place where these academies make their money is ground school. If you take the hours of ground school divided by the total cost, it works out to like $20 an hour for a class of 10-20 people. Sometimes their ground school classes cost more than classes at Harvard or Stanford! That's too much!!!

That is why I recommend an FBO over an airline academy. It is much cheaper, you will make more money, and the training can be accomplished in the SAME amount of time.

If you want to go to an airline academy, Delta Connection is the worst. The major academies cost almost the same. But at DCA, you fly old cessna-172's instead of new cessna's or pipers at Pan Am or Flight Safety. At DCA, the only multi time you get is for your multi engine rating, and your MEI. So you get hardly any multi time. At flight safety, you do your instrument in a multi. At PanAm, you do a multi engine routes course, where you get 40hrs PIC ontop of your other ratings. At ATP, you get lots of multi time, and consequently lots of MEI time. Either way (Flight Safety, PanAm, ATP) you will be closer to your 100 Multi that you will NEED to go to an airline. You can't get that at DCA!

Get your ratings (some good suggestions have already been made), work as a CFI, then get a regional airline job (try to get into RJ's at some point). When you have 2500+ hours and 1000 hours of airline time you can start applying to fractionals. A regional is almost certainly the fastest way to do this.

thank you all so much for your advice, I really want to be a pilot and I will of course put all of your good advice to use ASAP

hey can any of you guys tell me where the option to post a new thread is

Besides the regionals, there are quite a few cargo outfits you can get on with only limited flight time. The biggest hurdle is getting your first 100 to 500 hours of multi-engine experience and your first 1200 to 1500 hours total time. If you can become a CFI-MEI that's one way to build multi time. You can also find opportunities flying owners around or flying clubs.

The academies sell the connection or networking angle, but at any airport you'll be able to make really good contacts with lots of different people in this industry. Flightsafety is probably the best academy with the best reputation, but like everyone said, you can do it more cheaply and in the same amount of time or sooner on your own with a dedicated instructor and FBO.

Best wishes for your aspiring career. The main ingredient we all share is a deep passion for flying that makes us continue to pursue it even though reason and good sense says we shouldn't.

Umm, you've already done it once. Just do the same thing again.:confused:

But, just in case you're having a brain-fart (we all do occasionally) - go to the top of the page, just below the header, and click on the subdirectory tree to the area you want to be in, then choose a category that's appropriate for your topic, then there will be a "new thread" button available.

hey thanks man, wow that was imbarrassing

Ha, there are regionals that will simply hire a warm body. I flew at eagle and there were guys in my class with less than 400hrs and a multi. There was a guy there nicknamed "Magnum" because he had 357 hours.


Here is my history. I gradauted from UND and had 80k and change in loans. I have no living parents or anything so its just yours truly. No mommy and daddy to smootch off of. I instructed up there and logged a 1000hr yr and paid taxes on 18,000 that year. I was unable to pay all of my loans and still have money to live off of. I defaulted on all of them, including the federal loans. At this point my life headed into a spiral of disaster. I eventually ended up in federal court with the Dept Of Education. (this is a 20pg post in itself so I wont go into it) I am forever grateful to a lady in the financial aid dept at UND. She met with me privately and told me of every loophole and grey area in the system. I had a strange feeling I wasnt the first person. I had NO credit for 10yrs. I have my DOE laon paid down to 18K now and all others negotiated and settled. Its pretty bad when you make 6 figures yet you cant buy a home. In the process of all of this I found where UND had overcharged my acct quite often. (you UND guys can go to the county clerks office and look this up, summer 1998 Mr. ###### Vs UND Aerospace, again I wasnt the first) Im now one of those bitter pilots that hates everything. LOL...In short.... If you have money, a lot of money, go to the big programs. Have a ball and let mom and dad figure it out. If your Joe Blow like me dont do it. Get a real degree and ALWAYS have a plan B. I have tried countless time to leave this career but my degree is worthless.

The only good thing that I gained from it all was a loving wife which sometimes worked two jobs to keep a roof over our heads.

Thanks for sharing your story...I wonder how many others are out there like you?

-LAFF