mrk771989

I went to DCA last Wednesday to tour the place. They seem like they have a really good program there and know what they are doing. Does anybody have any thoughts about DCA?

ILS37R

Search through this forum and you'll find a lot of opinions on DCA, the majority not being positive. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it--a lot of sizzle up in Sanford without much steak, and a overly hefty price tag.

As for the other day's fatal SR-20 crash, I wouldn't factor that in too heavily. Not yet, at least. With the volume of training they do it was always more a matter of 'when' than 'if.' Until we have official information regarding the cause(s), it's best to consider it an unfortunate accident.

TPROP4ever

I agree. I trained at Sanford also. I happen to know that DCA does have a good program and produces knowledgable aviators, however they are extremely expensive ( not that flying is cheap ). Myself after not being able to afford them, went across the field to Falcon Flight of Sanford and did all my rating from PPL all the way to CMEL. I saved a ton of money and the Owner Vic is very very good to the students, The instructors there are Great people. George, Maggie, Vern, Shiloh, and Robbie, I would be hard pressed to say anything negative about any of them. Known them all for years. That being said in your career you are going to have to make hard decisions, just make the one thats right for you, dont follow or believe everything you read, do the research yourself, then make a decision. My opinion is anyone who bases any decision solely on what they read on a chat board is being a follower of the crowd, not what we need flying airplanes, Use the info to make an informed decision, just remember every school has someone who thinks they are terrible. That being said, Whatever you do, do not allow the unfortunate accident with DCA the other day to influence you, this is aviation, and accidents can and will happen, you will find sooner or later, that the longer you are in aviation, you will lose friends, not that is inherantly dangerous by nature, because its not, but to say that flight training is totally without risk would be giving you a false sense of security...Good luck in your search.

ufgatorpilot

I did some training (and some time building) at Falcon Flight as well and highly recommend it. It is very reasonably priced and as Tprop said, the people out there are good people. It is much more relaxed than at other schools, which makes it a nice environment to train in, in my opinion.

I have not done any training at DCA, but the people I know that have do not say anything positive about it.....

heckler45

I will offer this advice of DCA being a former student who attained all their ratings from there. Obviously I was once in your shoes about a year and a half ago, touring the school and thinking that it was professionally run. On the surface they (DCA) seem to have their act together. It was about a month after starting there, I was sitting in Flight Ops one day and overheard two Commercial students complaining about how bad DCA was and that they couldn't wait to get out of there. Being new, I couldn't understand their distain for the place. It wasn't until I became a commercial student that I understood what those two students were talking about. On the whole, I feel that the training is top notch. I can't speak for other schools but I will say upon completion your knowledge of aviation will be at par and hopefully you will be a safe and competent aviator. As for the price tag I will say this. If you have the money to spend then go ahead and attend a big name school. If you want your ratings under Part 141 versus 61 then go ahead, just means you have to fly a few less hours. But ask yourself, what are your goals. If you want to attend DCA because you think it's a quick ticket to get hired by an airline then forget about it. The days of DCA's partners coming in and scooping up low time inctructors is gone. The school as it is now is overstaffed with instructors and guess what, you as a CFI get paid by the flight hour. Figure that one out on your own.

Having said all that, don't get discouraged about your dream. Stay determined and if you have any questions about other schools then don't heistate to ask them on here. There are a lot of knowledgeable people running around who will be more than happy to share their thoughts.

Good luck!

mrk771989

I appreciate everyone's comments it has been a great help!

SebastianDesoto

double post.

SebastianDesoto

I highly recommend you stay away from DCA. In all honesty, you are much better off getting your first few ratings as cheaply as possible. After you get some experience being trained, you'll be able to make the decision on whether or not you want to continue flight training for a career. If you do decide its right for you, you'll also have a better foundation for investigating other flight schools and programs.

I went to DCA for my CFI and CFII. Is the training good? Its ok. The ground training was very thorough because they had full time ground instructors. The flight training itself was run of the mill. I found that instructors are much better when they are having fun, and most of them were not. I had one of my best instructors there and my worst.

The fact that DCA is only a flight school is both a positive and a negative. Their admissions is more interested in getting as many people as possible. They are not pushy, but they are salesmen. The people that go there are completely focused on flight training. That is good quality. But its a bad business model. They rely on flight training for their income. Their operations decisions are very inclined towards the dollar because running the business is expensive. Even though a place like Purdue, UND or ERAU are also WAY too expensive, those schools are not just pilot mills. They have multi faceted programs, like engineering, business, etc... This is a better business model because they reach multiple markets. They can support their flight programs that are not financially self sufficient (and run in the red very often). They are more likely to remain in business when flight training becomes too cost restrictive, and you can prepare for something outside of flying in case you lose your medical or are involved in an incident that precludes you from flying professionally.

I would STILL not recommend any of those places off the bat, but would recommend them over DCA. In the future, you don't want your debt to dictate your career decisions.

Go to a community college if you are not getting into a good state school. Figure out what would be a good degree to get (legal, medicine, engineering?). Flight train as much as you can. Do not half ass it. It'll cost you more in the long run. After you get an associates, and a private or maybe instrument ticket, you'll be much more knowledgeable about how flight training can be done.

This is a bit of a side note, but I would recommend you consider glider training as well. The reason is it does count towards experience and it can be done cheaply. A lot of people don't take that into consideration when investigating flight training. Glider training is also valuable experience, imo.

flyboyIIII

Sebastian, let me guess who is the best instructor over there? hmm... it must be WEST!

i discovered being ripped off on the second day in school, but people told me that it was too late, i signed the contract already. (although i had the right to discontinue the training)

for those who are interested in this school, just go for it if you think they still have connection with airlines, and overpaying 30-40% higher training fee than other schools will actually make you an elite pilot.

jonnyjetprop

Food for thought:

There was a time when taking your time meant dropping hundreds of senority numbers at that first regional, not today. Look into a program where you pay as you go. So what if it takes more time. You're not loosing a place at the table, with few jobs opening up. You'll be much happier going into your first aviation job debt free as apposed to being heavily in debt and having no way to pay it off.