Which way to go?
 

Aspiring airline pilot... I have approx 210 hrs, Private and instrument... working on commercial. Contemplating on which way to turn at this point in terms of staying at the local flight school and finishing up comm, multi and CFI or whether I should move on and go to one of the larger named schools like ATP, Comair Academy or Flight Safety. Not sure whether the airlines see that as being of a higher value having come through their training or not. Additionally, would it serve me better going to a larger named school so that I would be able to build up time faster than I would potentially at the local fbo. I know we have the hiring freeze right now, but once it ends I would like to be in the best place possible to get picked up. I have a good job right now that is helping me pay for my flight training, and I would be giving that up to go for the bigger school... would it be worth it or not to put me in the right position? Maybe I'm just a sucker for these companies advertisements, but it just sounds very tempting to me when you read that Charlie from TX or Valarie from Va simply paid 18K and now they are for sure sitting in the right seat for some airline. Thanks for the input!

ahhh, that's marketing BS-at your times, you would be throwing cash in the "terlet" going with those schools. Finish your commercial, do your CFI and start getting paid and teaching. When the wave does come back to shore, you'll be in good shape. May take a while but you'll need those hours anyway.

ATP/Flight Safety etc etc etc is for 0 hour guys.

Not only are schools like ATP and FSI for 0 hour guys primarily, they fail to make you a well rounded pilot. It doesn't make sense that the whole industry is in a hiring freeze yet if you go to ATP all of the sudden Comair or AMR has an opening.

Keep your job.

like everyone else said, stay local. airlines don't care where you went to school. ATP gets you done quick, but you won't really be needing to do that now since no one is hiring. I've heard nothing but bad things about Flight Safety, I would steer well clear of that place.

Run Now while your expenses are minimum!

its tough landing even CFI jobs now. DO NOT DO YOUR CFI anywhere that does not have a job for you at the end of it. Places that are hiring seem to only be hiring their own breed. CFI training is like an interview. Yeah, you may be able to get your CFI done in 37 minutes or whatever those places are advertising, but if there's not a job on the other side, it doesn't mean anything.

Other than that...I agree with everyone else

From my experience, local mom and pops do not have the logistics required to train a pilot that wants to become a professional pilot in a timely and efficient manner. And with the recent fuel add-on I firmly believe it's not a whole lot cheaper anymore. You already have 210 hours, you are almost done, finish your commercial. After that, you have many directions you can pursue. Those faces you see on pro pilot school websites are of people that have paid to get to that seat for when airlines were hiring. Now they are not, you should be smart enough to understand when schools are BSing you. The best you can hope for is to go to an academy that has a cfi program to get hired there or find a school that has a bridge program with an airline.


I know American Eagle has a program with a 3rd party school in Texas. You need com/multi/inst. You pay like 20K to that school, they give you 250 hours as a kingair SIC at Ameriflght and then you have a near guaranteed job at American Eagle. I talked to someone that completed this when I interviewed at Eagle, it worked out for him.

I was unaware that AE was hiring.

Just not in an actual class date. AE likes to run fat on pilots, I wouldn't be surprised if they're one of the first to hire again.