Flyin4Delta

I just returned from Delta Connection Academy's tour. I was not totally impressed. But they did have several aircraft and over 300 students. I have read and read sooooooo many posts, but yet I have not been able to see any DCA grads post or any current students of DCA post. If there is anyone that has a direct relation to DCA please help me and other future pilots and please let us know what the truth is. Is DCA what they claim to be, can they give you what you need? I understand money is a very large factor in the negative perspective, but other than the cost, what are the ups and what are the downs?

rickair7777

The reality is that the majority of the "academy" (and ERAU) grads get out into the real aviation/airline world and propmtly realize they've been scammed to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. They work in airplanes next to perfectly skilled, debt-free pilots who did their training at the local field for 1/3 the cost. They are usually a tad bitter about this and probably don't want to talk about it...

When you read positive posts, look carefully and you will notice that the vast majority are authored by STUDENTS or recent grads of these institutions, not experienced airline pilots. These folks haven't had the brutal reality shoved up their butts yet, but they are probably starting to suspect something...so they may have strong denial reactions.

The main downside is as you said, money. Would you pay $150K for a porsche? Maybe. How about a chevy astrovan? All flight training is of the chevy astrovan variety...some astrovans are well maintained, even pimped out, some look like crap but run great, others have a shiny new paint job but are worn-out junk...but they are all still ASTROVANS. Some schools can get people to pay huge bucks for the astrovan by TELLING them them that it is really a porsche...the problem is that most entry level pilots have never seen or driven a "porsche" or an "astrovan" so they can be sucked right in...

BTW, No amount of money can buy the porsche, the only way to get it is to compete for and win a military flight slot.

JoeyMeatballs

If you have a lot of money and want to be around aviation throuygh college go for it, but if you are low on funds and don;t want to spend most of you rlife paying them back Riddle is a waste, the FAA is the governing authority for licenses, so wether you got it at Riddle or a part 61 flight school, a rating is a rating, Riddle capitalizes on "we make airline pilot's" blah blah blah, its rediculous, go get a degree at a 4 yr school and live the noirmal college life, I got a degree in history spent 9 months at Colgan and start Expressjet training in two weeks, besdies making a photo copy of my diploma no other questions were askes about college

Flyin4Delta

Ok, I have a 4yr degree.... and I really have no clue what to do. I have read everywhere about how bad these flight schools are. You mentioned Colgan. What made you choose Colgan? What did the application require you to have to be hired by Expressjet and what did you acutally have? Does having a degree actually help?

Flyin4Delta

How about this? http://skymates.com/course-all-inclusive-multi.htm

JoeyMeatballs

to be honest I really am not sure about those I didnt go that route, I did most of my flying at a part 141 local flight school in Jersey, then ended up instructing there, very good school. I guess if you are older the quicker the better, how old are you? Colgan was the first that hired me so I took it and I wanted expressjet from the get go so I knew some time at Colgan would def get me an interview with xjet

Flyin4Delta

I am 22yrs old....

ctd57

Just go to whatever flight school fits you the best. My buddy went to DCA and nothing good to say about it, but that is just him. He advised me not to go there because of the amount of debt he was in. He advised ATP, I went there and have no regrets. But like I said before, whatever fits your schedule is the best for you.

Flyin4Delta

How long did it take you to get what you needed? How many hours did you come out with?(mulit,tt,exc.) What airline are you flying for?

Thanks
~Taylor

ctd57

I did ATP's 90 day program in ATL. I finished in 88 days, and that included about 10-14 days that I had off due to scheduling of checkrides and CFI school. I started with 85 hours and finished with around 240. About 130 multi. I completed the program in July 05 and started instructing at the end of Oct 05. I now have 650 hours of which over 500 is multi. It isn't a bad job even though the pay sucks, because of the multi time you get. I had never heard of ATP until and airline buddy of mine who went to DCA told me to come to ATP because he had a bunch of buds who came here. It is a great program, I would recommend it to anyone. If you have any other questions, just post or PM me. You can set up tours of ATP if you want by calling 800-allatps, but if you do it in Jax, just remember this, Jax is not a good example of how ATP operates. Alot of ATP instructors don't like the Jax location themselves. The instructors are in my opinion, are hotheaded and think that they are special. Come on, don't foll anyone, you fly a seminole. And they go around quoting Top Gun, which is really bad, and coming from the Naval Aviation myself, found it quite amusing. So take it with a grain of salt, no other location is like Jax