American Flyers?
 

Does anyone have any information on American Flyers flight school? I am looking at their location in Florida but I heard that they dont give you a lot of multi engine time,only like 15-20 hours.

I have two things to tell you about American Flyers.

1. Multi time. Congratulations on figuring this out. At American Flyers, it practically does not exist. They attempt to hide this from you. You go through their entire program (wherever you live), and you get a private, instrument, and commercial. Oh, you want a multi? Well American Flyers does not own a multi engine airplane at this location (BAD SIGN!!!). The only place they have a multi engine airplane is in Dallas. So pack your bags and head to Dallas to get your 10-15 of multi time. Once you get your multi engine rating, back to your town to go through their flight instructor academy. They will give you a CFI, and a CFII. Wait, what about a multi engine instructor (MEI)? Sorry, American Flyers does not own any multi engine airplanes at this location.

So how do you get your 100+ hours of multi time you will need to go the airlines. Good question that American Flyers does not have an answer for. Basically, you will have to go to a local FBO, get an MEI, and try to get a job with them. But that is probably out of the question b/c you did your training at American Flyers. The other option is to rent a multi engine airplane for $150+ an hour, and fly it around for 90hrs. (That will cost close to $15,000).
I would not recommend this school based on the lack of multi time alone. If you ever talk to this school again, GRILL them on this point. Do not let them off the hook easy. Keep on asking why no multi?, how will I get multi?, don't I need multi? etc... Multi time is vital for regional airlines. No multi = no job! Period!


2. Ground school cost. This one is pretty simple. Ask them how much your ground school cost. They will give you a number. Then ask how many hours you spend in ground school. Press the division symbol on your calculator, and you will get a figure that comes out to about $80 an hour for classroom ground instruction (with 10-20 people). That is more than classes cost at Harvard or Stanford!!! THAT'S TOO MUCH!

American Flyers is a BAD program. If you are training in Florida, and you have your heart set on an airline academy, try Flight Safety or ATP. But airline academies are not really good schools. They are in the business of making lots of money, and they do a good job at it. The best, and by far the cheapest way to train is at a local FBO at your home airport. Here is a comparison of an FBO to an airline academy.

I would recommend you do your licenses and ratings at an FBO. It will save you at least $20,000 for the same training. At academies, you will pay $55 an hour for instruction. At an FBO you will pay about $35 an hour for instruction. The flip side, when you want to instruct to timebuild, academies will only pay you $14 an hour. The FBO will pay you $25-35 an hour. BIG DIFFERENCE! At academies, you will pay like $105 for an old cessna, while at an FBO you will pay $80-90 for an old cessna. At academies you will pay over $200 an hour for a multi, while those cost about $150 at an FBO. As crazy as these prices are, the place where these academies make their money is ground school. If you take the hours of ground school divided by the total cost, it works out to like $20 an hour for a class of 10-20 people. That's too much!

The fact is you will get the same amount of training in the same amount of time at a local FBO. The biggest difference is you will save $20-30k on your training. Having a loan for $30k more when you are a first officer at a regional airline is a BAD situation.

So I would recommend not going to American Flyers. If you have money to spend, look at an airline academy like Flight Safety or ATP. Otherwise, find an FBO near your home. Make sure they have a decent fleet or aircraft, a good instructor who can fly as often as you need, and reasonable rates. FBO's are the way to go!

Wow, Thanks for the valuable information. I did ask them about the multi engine time and you are right they were very vague about it.

The previous poster was correct, but the AF CFI academy (CFI/CFII) is a good deal for the price, and if your previous training background was at an FBO or small school it can provide you with some good networking opportunities. You could even work for them as a CFI/CFII until you can get your MEI and get a job doing that.

I dont think they try and hide it from people. If you lok at their brochure or go on their website you can plainly see that they do not have any multi engine aircraft. In fact, no where in theoir advertisements does it say anything about a multi engine rating

They will try to downplay the importance of ME time and the difficulty you will have obtaining it. I believe that they avoid ME training due to high insurance costs.

I think thats the thing. Its about priorities. All these other schools, what I like to term pilot mills are interested in is getting you through your ratings and the required time to get to an ailirlne. Thats NOT what learning to fly is all about. Its not about building time building time. Its about becomming a competant pilot. People are so focused on getting 1000/100 they tend to foget you have to be a proficient pilto and lov aviation.

Most of my flight training has been done at a small flying club with a 60 year old CFI who loves to teach. I decidd to get my multi rating a a flight school to use my GI Bill. My MEI was a young guy who went through ERAU. He was reviewing my logbook and was astonished that I actually did fliyng that was NOT for a rating. See each hour he has is toward a lisence or rating for his career. I on the other hand will fly for the heck of it. I may take my girlfriend down to Savannah for lucn. I may go up with a friend just to see whats up. I do want to be a professional pilot, But I am also an aviation enthusiist and I think thats impotant

That's the "Do you have 100 hours of flying experience or 1 hour completed 100 times" issue. I agree, you will never learn what things are like in the "real" world unless you push yourself to learn new things. IMO, that's the real trick in getting your logbook built to the point where you can be hired.

American Flyers
 

Has anyone here had any experience with them and how did you get your multi engine time up for the airlines once you finished?

Did my CFI/CFII with American Flyers when they were still around Hayward, CA. The CFI academy was okay... nothing special. FAA test prep was a joke. We just had some lady, who looked like she was around during the 1906 quake, come in and read every effin question and answer in the test (in MONOTONE!!!! :eek: ). Nobody passed with more an a 90... pretty pathetic in my opinion. We all would have been better off just doing self study.

Got my MEI at an FBO and flew around with a friend in his Baron until he met his mins and I got around 200 multi total. Flew that thing everywhere from Alaska to Florida to New York.... ahhh, those were the days! :)