How the hell.......?

The average at Riddle is under 50k.

:confused:

What does under $50k get you at ERAU?

I attended the SUA location and did the 90 day wonder program. I was finished in 87 days. Just bear in mind, you are going up with their hand-picked examiners. Whether you actually know anything is another matter altogether. Not sure what your ultimate goals are, but if it's instructing, you will learn far more about flying from your first year of instructing than what you could ever learn at ATP. Also expect pressure to fly with squawks. After all, the X-C portion consists of you and another student repositioning their a/c for them, for maintenance purposes. Both of you are paying to do it, and logging multi simultaneously ;) Be firm, they assume that everyone wants to kiss their ass to get hired on as an instructor. YOU are the customer, NOT their employee.

some textbooks and a bologna sandwich

I went to the Jacksonville location and let me say this is NOT true as long as you stick to your guns... If they tell you "well we really need this plane in (insert location), and this problem isnt that bad, all you have to do is say that you dont feel comfortable and they wont force you... It is a good experience and ive heard good things from the self paced students.. I did the 90 day program and was finished in something like 120... They sometimes drag their feet but overall a good and fun time...

They will pressure you to fly the planes on x-countries no matter what. I am a former C-130 crew chief and I had to fight with dispatch because I refused to take the plane they wanted us to. Finally three hours later the maintenance dude came out and the plane was in the shop for two weeks...

All your ratings, from private to CFI. Unless you're an under-average performer, in which case it'll cost you more than the quoted price in ANY flight school, not just riddle. I always hear that the training is overpriced at riddle, but I spent under 50k and I would've spent the same or more at other large scale flight schools (according to the price quotes). The unfortunate part is that you can't get just the flight training at ERAU.. the useless aviation degree comes with the deal. and I think THAT's the overpriced part.

Kojack is correct. The dispatcher is sitting in some cubicle somewhere, yet tries to force aeronautical decision making down the throats of low time pilots who haven't learned risk management yet when it comes to flying.

I have to agree with this. I went to ATP PHX. I had a great time. But dispatch tried to get me to fly into a convective sigmet one day, out of VGT. After 3 hours of fighting it, they finally gave in. On another trip, they tried to get me to fly in to a center weather watch, and after four hours of hashing it out with them, I finally siad i'd do it, but I'd stop short if flight watch haden't said anything about conditions improving. They finally sent us the other way up to SAC from RAL. You will be pushed to fly airplanes with squaks, but you are the PIC, and as such can refuse to fly. But to be honesst, the worst thing I had to fly with was an inop heater. I was never asked to fly an airplane that was unsafe.

South Africa
 

Perhaps I should start a new thread but this hit the nail on the head for me. I have talked to regional pilots on a daily basis at work and they seem to all lean toward ATP, Flight Safety, Riddle and such. In my 2 years of research I thought these were always the best options for everyone globally for the best price until I made the decision to convert to JAA after training and yadda yadda yadd fly elsewhere then the US with my EU and US citizenship.

Would anyone recommend South Africa for the training? No US school can give me a straight answer on the FAA/JAA conversion and what all is involved. I feel a school abroad will cater to jobs abroad.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!