bigD

Ok, I have done a search already and haven't found anything about this area's aviation schools so I thought I would ask everyone else.

Has anybody or does anybody currently attend any flight schools in the Albuquerque area? More specifically I am looking at two different schools,

West Mesa Aviation (Nothing to do with MESA!!)
http://www.where2fly.com/

Bode Aviation
http://www.flybode.com/

Does anyone have any experience with them or can anyone point me in the direction to find out about them?

Thanks in advance.

MAPD

I am a pilot living in ABQ and do not recommend West Mesa Aviation. I attained my Private, Instrument, Commercial, and Multi ratings at Mesa Airlines Pilot Development located in Farmington. I highly recommend the Mesa Airlines Pilot Development program. I graduated from there, but never followed through with the interview because of personal reasons. You'll spend about $50K for the full program and it can be financed easily. You'll fly a bonanza, compared to overrated Cessna's and the Baron for your multi semester. I am currently trying to locate a flight school to further my experience and have considered MAPD, due to it's great program, however don't want to spend another 8 months training. It's best off for me to find a CRJ type rating academy with a job interview afterwards or obtain my CFI, CFII, MEI ratings. I just don't know yet. After you graduate from MAPD you'll receive an airline interview with Mesa that has a 91% hiring rate. I believe anybody good can be hired by them, even lax with knowledge, you don't have to be excellent. Just keep your nose clean throughout the program and you should be fine. Many of my classmates have been hired by them, however, some hate flying for the airline. It's a great school though. Just get your hours no matter what. After that you can be picky. Keep in mind, it's an airline not in bankruptcy. I wasted about $2,500 at West Mesa Aviation. At MAPD, the chief pilot really cares about every student and will work with you on obtaining your job with their airlines, otherwise it can hurt their statistics with the hiring rate. They don't milk you for money either. It's a very well organized program. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!!

rickair7777

MAPD is one of the very few pay for training programs (PFT) that actually delivers a fairly high success rate at getting an airline job, about 80% for folks who start that program.


However, you need to understand that 250 hour PFT airline pilots are usually viewed with suspicion, contempt, or outright hatred by the rest of the airline industry (depending on what phase of bankruptcy they happen to be in). While you can get a quick job at Mesa (considered an industry bottom-feeder in many ways), lack of CFI experience could harm your career prospects in the future. Research it carefully.

salhnl

I know this is a long shot since this thread was created in 2006. I'm just seeing if there is any info on these guys? Anyone ever worked as CFI at Bode 2015 - present? It looks like they are hiring, but there is no information at all?

Benbc

I know their not taking any new students due to the lack of cfi’s. You might wanna call and see what they tell you.

salhnl

Indeed has a posting and it looks like they start at $25/hr. My family is in ABQ so it might not be a bad option to look into. I think the challenge is not knowing anything about a business, moving cross country with your family, and then a month into it just being miserable. At least with CAE, L3, FSA, US Aviation Academy you can find reviews... Thanks for the response...