University Flight Schools Question
 

My question pertains to schools such as UND and ASU. How many hours do you usually have by the time you graduate? Are you able to get a job out of college at the regionals or do you have to instruct for some time after graduation?

I graduated with 201 hours. That was all ratings through CFI-I, but not MEI. I'd estimate that to be about average.

No. No way are you getting hired to fly a part 121 jet aircraft at 200 hours. Regionals = 1500 hours. Universities will bring this number down, but not to 200.

Plan on instructing. Enjoy it. It can be fun and it is a useful part of your career.

How long will I have to instruct for after I graduate?

For university flight programs that qualify for the restricted ATP hour reduction, 1000 hours are required. You'll graduate with around 250 hours. At a relatively busy school, you can figure it will be about one year of instructing until you have 1000 total.

Is there anything you can do to start instructing while working on an aviation degree so you graduate with 1000 hours?

Under normal circumstances, you won't be anywhere close to 1000 before graduating. However, you can start flight instructing part-time while still studying, which will help you build hours faster. That's what I did, and only had to full-time instruct for 6 months after graduating. Relax about the timeframe though. Whether it takes 6 months or 1 year, you'll get there and you'll be fine.

Most people out of UND have around 200-250 after completion of all flight courses (not including MEI). How long it takes to get to your R-ATP minimums depends on how hard you want to work and when you graduate. My peers have completed the commercial aviation program in as little as 2.5 years, leaving for a regional by the end of their 3rd year at UND. A full-time flight instructor can get about 50-60 hours of flight time a month, easily. So get your CFI ASAP and get hired ASAP. The average total time spent instructing at UND is 14 months before people leave fore airlines (actual number from our department). PM for any questions.

US Aviation works with Tarrant County College for a two year program. We generally say that you'll end up at an airline in 4 years or less. Graduate with CFI and CFII, need about 1000 more hours to meet ATP mins (1250 restricted), then instruct for US Aviation to get your time.

The program is also a lot cheaper than ASU or UND (about $65,000 in total flight fees and out of state tuition is about $16,000 for both years).