DCA got the contract... here is the news report on it Cheated Flight Students Get Help After Eyewitness News Involvement - News Story - WFTV Orlando

 

I went through the program back in 2006-2007. Got picked up with ASA about 2yrs from the day I started at DCA. It is a VERY expensive school but I'd say it is also a good flight school. Training is year round but in the last yr they have started weekends off. The school does make you do a lot more then you have to do but the idea is for you develop study skills that will get you through airline training once you get hired. It also gives you a better understanding of fundamental skills as a pilot (paperwork and flying). You will hear other schools call DCA a pilot factory but the reality is that DCA pumps out pilots because of the shear number of students they have. Also many students don't finish the program because of money or a lack of studying. DCA will not push a student forward if they do not do the extra academic work that they demand. This does cause some to leave because they do not have to do the extra work. Some went to other aviation academies such as Regional Flight Academy. But they have since closed their doors. There is a reason why DCA has been around for so many years. As much as some people complain about its price the training is good and it is a way to make it to the airlines fast. This doesn't mean that an FBO cannot take you there too. Their are plenty of airline pilots that never stepped foot into an academy or the military for flight training. Just the good old FBO. But no matter what, at an FBO you will only be as good as how well your CFI trains you with his/her own syllabus and how much effort you put on your own. DCA has a syllabus and regulates its CFIs to teach you all the material as all 141 schools are. Asking if DCA is better then an FBO or another academy in some ways is like the debate what is better import or domestic, EMB or CRJ? I will tell you this, in my hire class at ASA, about 70% of the pilots came from some kind of flight program other then an FBO. (Universities or 141 schools) One of the great things about DCA is that they will no quit even if you quit on yourself. They will push and urge you to go forward and the instructors are not shy in telling you that the more you slack off the more this is going to cost you. Some will say that is proof that they are gold diggers but I see it as them telling you the hard cold truth. Study, do what they say, apply yourself and DCA will be cheaper. That mentality pretty much goes for any flight school or FBO. One last thing about DCA and other major flight schools is that you should also look at it as a way of networking. Just like business students pay such high tuition to go to USC VS another cheaper college. You will meet many instructors and students ahead of you in training and there are soooooooooo many of them. They will get to the airlines and if you make friends with them they can also be your referral into the airline. You never know if that CFI of yours or your briefing partner is your ticket into your 1st regional airline or your dream mainline carrier one day.

I hope my long speech help put somethings is prospective for you granted many may also not agree with me.

 

I think same goes to riddle or similar places. So... my question is, what's the QOL as instructor there?

 

I don't work there, but the DCA motto is something like "Pay em low, treat em like crap, and no matter what happens... the pilot is ALWAYS at fault".

Rumor has it they've been on another wave of firing people for anything and everything... trying to thin the heard to save some money I think. One of the upper managers got canned about a month ago, and replaced with someone they had previously fired for saying not nice things about the Cirrus.

The Chinese contract they got a couple months ago was Shenzen Airlines. Overall, I agree with daniel0265, the training is top-notch, but $14/hour for a CFII is beyond criminal. You're worth more than that...

 

That is why the training is so good because that is the exact same motto for every regional airline. Get used to being treated like crap, it does not change once you go to an airline.

 

Pay goes up to $20/hr once you get CFI qualified, or if you are an EOC qualified stage check instructor.

 

I heard Epic got some of the pie too. Feel bad for those CAPT guys... they really got bamboozled, not only the Chinese, but the domestic pilots! Some of them are still out of $30k+. I think the Chinese students got evicted from their apartments in Flagler, some of them were seen fishing out of the retention ponds nearby because they lost their substance allowance. There is a youtube video of a CAPT "riot", basically a bunch of students in the parking lot yelling at the liason.