Skymates (Arlington, TX)
 

Anybody considering Ari-Ben Aviator or ATP might also want to consider Skymates. (www.skymates.com)

I went through their professional pilot program in about 6 months, and had a great experience. The flight instructors are great, the management is on top of things, and the maintenance people take pride in the quality and throughness of their work.

The Seminoles are equipped with very basic avionics (dual nav/coms + DME), but they're inexpensive timebuilding airplanes. Many of the 172's have IFR GPS, and they have 2 new aircraft with the Garmin 1000 glass panel.

Skymate's price is competitive, and living in Arlington is very reasonable. Just a suggestion for anybody who's looking for a career pilot program (or any other flight training, really).

What about TSTC - Waco?
 

Arlington being so close to Waco, why not go for the MUCH less expensive option of TSTC-WACO? They offer ratings through CFI - AND - an AA degree for a price tag of around $35K in about 18 months. TSTC is a State funded school, so they cover costs but don't make a profit on flight training. I've heard that it's one of the best kept secrets in flight training from a cost/quality perspective.

www.pilotcollege.com/

Best kept secret indeed! Definately worth looking into for the prospective professional pilot.

I went to Arlington for some training recently and went into Skymates out of curiousity(ya know, cause they have all the magazine ads) to by a chart and they were so busy that not one employee made eye contact with me, even while I was purchasing my chart(the guy was juggling the phone while ringing me up). I thought to myself that I was glad to be training down the road.

Where did you train in Arlington?

prolly ATP

Stuff
 

I understand the military has a good professional pilot program and the pay is fairly decent.

True, except they don't teach military pilots how to think on their feet or execute good crosswind landings :p

military training is second to none. Pay and benefits are quite good. Don't forget you'll be an officer first and pilot second. If that doesn't appeal to you I would not recommend the military.

-LA