flygirl579

Hello All,

I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me anything about Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Atwater, CA. I may have the opportunity to interview there soon, but it would mean relocating out of state for me, and living apart from my husband for a while. That means 2 rent payments, 2 sets of living expenses...that said, is the pay as good as what they advertise?

The only concern I had is that I heard they changed their payscale all together recently; I wondered how current instructors were liking that so far. If I understand correctly, I wouldn't be paid until I got my students through their check ride; how easy is that to do at Sierra (given things like mx, check instructor availability, weather, etc)?

I'm just curious to get an overall impression of Sierra too; I was burned pretty bad by another flight school recently (as in, went to work one day and the doors were closed, no paychecks, lied to from managment...), so I guess I'm a little gunshy about getting involved with another school I know nothing about. Thanks for any input you can give.

exerauflyboy5

Please Dear Lord, DONT GO TO SIERRA!!!!. Your paid in a lump sum when a student passes a stage check. Then you have to wait for the check. The planes are not maitained very well. The managment is worse than mesa. And george get 500 dollars if you sign on. PLEASE DONT GO!!!

contrails

It was a great deal before that and some other things happened. You could make $2-4K a month.

waflyboy

'Twas indeed.

LOL!!!! Is that what George is up to these days? Honestly, I'm surprised they are having a tough time filling flight instructor slots. Seems like there's a ton of CFIs complaining that they aren't making enough money or flying enough at their current jobs. It's still probably one of the better deals out there for those who want to build their time quickly and be paid reasonably well.

FlyGirl, if it means living away from your hubby, I personally wouldn't even consider it. (Unless maybe your current home close enough to drive home on the weekends.) If you're both interested in moving, I've heard that IFTA in Bakersfield is a great place to instruct. Good pay (in the $40k-50k range), benefits, and good equipment from what I've heard. I don't think you fly much, but if you're looking for good place to be for the next year or two while things in the airline biz settle down, it might be worth looking into.

CAL99

Spoke with Sierra dispatch last week. Currently in hiring freeze. The China contract is still going strong. Before the freeze, you could show up with a CFI, assuming you pass interview then add -I & MEI at a discount. I live in Merced and the next closest flight school is Mazzei in Fresno. Still looking for that opportunity.

Moonwolf

hey, I'm currently instructing at sierra, I've been here for about 7 months. I have some positive things to say, but more negative. Pros- you can make your own schedule and fly whenever you want. (if the airplanes aren't squawked in maintenance). Rent is cheap (175/mo) you live right on the airport, but Atwater is a ****hole place to live.
Cons- you can expect to average $1200/mo, if you have good students then a bit more. I'm not sure what they are advertising, we recently went through two pay scale changes, both involved the instructors getting screwed out of money. Some instructors that were just hired have been here for 2 months with no students at all. I would advise you don't move out until your guaranteed students.

The management are idiots.
They run around making new policies everyday, pointless, basically driving this school into the ground.
I could go on, and on. Let me know if you need any more information.

ps. george is in napa, working for some flight school there. what a piece of work that girl is, oops i mean guy.

Moonwolf

Also you get paid per stage check (141). Pvt has 5 different checks, Inst 4, Comm 6, so you can expect to wait 2 weeks for a paycheck

flyboyIIII

moonwolf, are they still hiring?

michael95u

I would stay far away. It seems like their attrition rate for instructors is VERY high.

Screwedbysierra

They get paid per stage check? No wonder i spent so much! I went up with a DC10 Captain for World Airways when I was working at DVO, and he couldn`t figure out why I was failing stage check! Thanks alot SAA!