not so great...
 

I'm a Riddle Grad, and have worked at Regional Airline Academy as a CFI...All the programs mentioned do have successful students, but I noticed the majority of RAA folks were very displeased with the way they were being treated, considering how much money they have to pay. At least Riddle Diddle gives you some nice equipment, lots of rules, but thats life and probably safer in the long run. RAA's managment staff is a joke, very difficult to work with and very unapproachable. Very rarely did I see them make accomodations to help their students out.

I'm sure the original poster has made his decision and is long gone, but for future reference I would steer clear of RAA. Their concept is that if most airlines are hiring at 1000/100 minimums, they can get you interviewed at 5 or 600 hours with a Type rating...You still end up flight instructing to build up to those 600 hours, they just get an extra 18K outta ya and tell you you'll get an "interview" earlier with one of their Regionals. Meanwhile you could instruct for a couple extra months, but that 18000 into Multi time and then you'll be somewhere. You do not need a type rating to get hired by a regional. Just instruct like everybody else, if you want to blow money rent a twin. But If paying 1000s of dollars for something that could help you out or expedite the process by a few months sounds good to you, than go for it, its your debt. I think RAA trains okay pilots, I see them doing a lot of stupid things around Daytona airspace, but pretty safe all in all. If you want to go to a high paced, pay up front flight school go to ATP (www.allatps.com) in Jacksonville or wherever. Again your still paying quite a bit (get use to it, your in training), but they don't mess around. Plus you get you done fast; I didn't notice a problem with the quality of their pilots either. More of a self-study school than spoon fed, but at least you get alot of multi time, something that is valuable no matter what, rather than a CRJ type which may or may not help you.

Anyways, i'm just another riddle dork like all the rest of you on this forum with another worthless opinion...peace out.

I too am am a...or was a...student at RAA. I had more than my fair share of problems with the school. I enrolled at RAA 20 months ago. I was jerked around for flight time, I had countless instructor changes, and was treated like a second class citizen for complaining about the problems in my training. There are some decent instructors there who are genuinely concerned about your training but most just want to build hours so they can move on to the airlines. Which is fine for some but I prefer one who feels responsible for correctly training pilots. I can't get into all the details of my problems with RAA but if you're considering going and/or instructing there here's some things to keep in mind. The owners daughter is the human resources manager, her husband is in charge of flight operations and he requires his approval to do anything, and you will not be a paying customer...just another second class citizen paying them for the abuse.

Oh yeah...I'm still not flying an airplane for a living. Thanks RAA.

I don't know why everyone flocks to these schools. Airlines don't really care where you get the training they just want to see quality in you. I did half of my training at a small FBO in northwest Iowa. One CFI 80 years old. There have been dozens of guys and gals that have trained there and are captians for America West, Delta, United, American. I flocked here to RAA because I thought the fast track was the best way these days. Get that seniority number. But, and 19 years old....good luck getting a senority number because A i'm not going to get hired and B who wants to deal with the regionals. My choice is such that I'm leaving reagional not because its a bad school or I havn't recieved proper training. I got the best. But, the school is overpriced, the airplanes aren't top dollar and we pay top dollar, and at other places there are no weather mins. Now there is experience. Half of the students at RAA have never been scared Sh**less because of a boobo. The new 142 program is a joke. Cross countries in the sim? Honestly. My advice....go somewhere private where there are just a few students and get real life experience. I loved as a student pilot to go grab the cessna any time I wanted, pull it out of the hangar and fly. No instructor supervision. It was some of the best flying of my career so far. Not only will you get some awesome experience but it'll be a lot better on your check book. You want the degree go to UND or Perdu. Riddle is just an expensive name.

Does FTD time count in your total hours?

No. Is it a simulator certified for IFR training, or just a PC trainer? If it's just a PC trainer, I wouldn't put it in your log book at all unless it is FAA certified for IFR training (it will have a certificate on the wall..required by the FAA)

While legally there may be a few exceptions for certain high-end full-motion sims, the safe route is to not count any sim time as total time. It counts as sim time only and goes in that column, so if an employer wants to give you credit for your sim time they know where to look. If you represent a certain amount of total time, and a potential employer finds that they have to subtract out your sim time to get your REAL total time, they might not be happy.