Longbow64

Hi, I'm active duty Army stationed at Ft. Hood, TX. I'm originally from Baltimore, MD, but I'm going to do a change of address to Texas, so I don't have to pay out of state fees! I plan on using my GI bill to pay for my college, and pay my own for flight training! Does anybody know any 4 year colleges near Midland, TX?

HSLD

http://www.midland.edu/~pilots/

Also check out TSTC in Waco

Good luck!

multipilot

TSTC is a good two year associate degree school. If you elect to go that route, there is Tarleton in Killeen where you can finish up your 4 year and not pay rediculous tuition costs such as at Baylor. CTC, also a two year, and is also in killeen and you can transfer to Tarleton. There is also UVSC Global aviation online program, out of Orem Utah, but you have to be self motivated as everything is self paced.

[URL="http://www.theflightcollege.com"]

ToiletDuck

TSTC in waco is where I went and there were a couple people using the GI bill to get their training. Some were around 60yrs old. However do not plan on finishing in 2yrs. Very very very few do. You will need to kiss a lot of instructor booty to make that happen. Get in touch with Steve McNaughten. He can answer all questions reguard that stuff. Take everything he says with a truck of salt but he'll get you the info. They were doing primary in C152 however they moved on to the katana or whatever the new 2seat upgrade of it is.

The airport is a great training area. However be prepared to put up with some BS whenever G. W. Bush is in town. They close down the area and you are required to have an IFR flight plan out of the area to fly which stops most training. Sometimes you can jet up to conroe but you are burning time and money doing so. They also were, i haven't checked back recently, allowing students to only fly 2 times per week. I hate the rule because you get some people who are uneducated and get a loan and go in there trying to fly, waste your slot times up, then they drop out just in time for a whole new group. I want to say the average students is around 120 with about 12-14 instructors. They average 8 students per instructor who always want to fly at the same time. The new head of the program is less focused on amount of flights as he is with amount of students. However, that being said, if you hang around in your free time you can always pick up flight slots and if you make buds or just listen to the chief pilot Ed you learn a good thing or two.

They also go on a trimester so you don't really get any time off. Be careful if you go to Tarleton because since TSTC is on a trimester your grades come out at different times. If you try and have your grades sent to tarelton sometimes they don't make it.

I was kicked out of baylor 3yrs running because TSTC never sent my grades and I would always show F's in all my classes there. It took a call from a lawyer and the poor lady at records in baylor to actually drive over on her own time to get all of our grades. There were about 8 of us who never had them turned over....

All in all great place to learn to fly. But you have to take much responsibility on yourself that you shouldn't have to. You will have to stay ontop of all your flight records and schedule your own flights if possible. Towards the end they opened up my file and there were 2yrs of data missing. The instructor had been fired and the other retired. After arguing it out they agreed to waiver it all. My roomate and I were so upset that all we had to do was walk over to the records office and pay $20 to get our associates degree and we said the hell with it. After 5yrs of screwing with that place it was nice to get out. The flight training is great. The peopel doing the paperwork aren't lol.

multipilot

When I said "two-year" i was referring to the degree. It took me nearly four years to get it due to Bush, money, life, etc. Most people finish in 3 to 4 years but work on their 4 year while they finish up flying. I've known a lot of guys that got their 4 year degree somewhere else before they got their 2 year degree at TSTC.