Keep your day job. Go to a flight school and get a private/instrument>15K. Buy a small plane >15-20K. Fly the pizz out of it to get 250>10-15K. Go back to flight school and get a commercial CFI. Sell the Plane >+15K. Instruct full or part time. Go to airline of your choice in less then five years and no 125K debt.

You obviously didn't read the attached article regarding pilot training background and training success.

Worked for me. Bought a Piper Colt at 16 and then started getting into various partnerships, fix 'r uppers and flips through the multi-inst., commercial. Actually made money by the time the airplane flips offset the training cost.

The general aviation market is doing OK right now. Plenty of opportunities to find unloved airplanes, make them nice and sell them at retail. Easier to do than buying & selling cars or real estate. The folks you meet will be friends for life and make a solid network.

IMHO this program isn't terrible, but it is not a good value for the "benefit" of skipping an interview. If you have a lot of cash and just want to build time you could always volunteer for Angelflight, a relief or missionary organization and write off the donation. I used to do some of that flying in my Bonanza. It was rewarding on a personal level and a plus in my subsequent airline interviews.

JetBlue may find itself as a "stepping stone" ... it is a good airline, but not the kind of airline career some seek.

I saved the kid about 80K, saved his day job and qualified him for his dream job in 5 yrs. He will do fine in training.
Along the way he learn about aircraft, maintenance, purchasing, mechanics and airport managers.
He will be the captain making the calls while learning about his aircraft limits and his own limitations. Flying that ugly Piper or Cessna from Keywest to Fairbanks he will have to learn about weather systems and long-range forecasts all while Mr Darwin looks over his shoulder.
No it's not a pretty structured chalk and talk procedures training ad-nasuem environment. Just another way of achieving ones goals with a little adventure along the way. Some might even call it character building.

Do u pay $125k?

Or do you have a training contract valued at $125k?

if u have to pay DEFINITELY not worth it...the pilot shortage has just started in severity...Delta and UAL are already studying ab-initio...u won't have to pay anything in a few years...

Thanks for the responses all, and apologies to the one person who called me a troll for not responding in less than 24 hours on a weekend. :rolleyes: (I guess I faked the whole email posted too?)

The FAA medical is a good idea. My USN medical DQ had to do with a years old leg injury, nothing that I assume would really affect the FAA exam, but good to get out of the way.

To be honest, I am leaning towards no on this, even though I think I will take the assessment. I just have too much going career/life wise to start over at square zero for this. If I were 23-24 again, that might be a different story.

I do respect the piloting profession a lot. As someone who has been successful in a different industry, the financial and professional uncertainty of the regionals are unbelievable to me, and why this program is so intriguing. Most fields realize that young talent needs to be nurtured, not treated like crap. Wall Street pays junior bankers $150k fresh out of college, even though they don't do much more than keep spreadsheets clean (seriously). However, they do this knowing that 10 years from now they will be looking to pick their management from those ranks. Longer, more defined career pipelines seem like they could have a place in aviation to attract top talent.

Also accepted into this program. I am not trolling, what would be the point?

My confusion lies with the, "You didn't spend 10 years at a regional, so you won't have the experience".

In my early days when I was trying to get my private pilots licence right out of high school. I worked as a fueler for United's contractor as I knew it was the best way into the cockpit and talk with pilots. I fueled thousands of United express ERJs and others.

I always imagined at the time these pilots had years of experience but I was surprised early on to learn most of them were put behind the controls of these planes with 250 hours or a hair above.
My point being I suppose, they didn't get replaced with more experienced pilots when the crosswinds we're gusting at 30 knots or when an engine faluire occured.

Why can't I, assuming I pass the course, be the SIC on an E190 at 1500 hours?

The devaluing of pilots may hold true, but the expirence thing throws me for a loop.

Please understand, I'm not at all trying to be a jerk, I'm trying to understand at least this aspect of the aggression towards this program.

The front office investment banking analysts on Wall Street you are referring to are treated like crap..They start at 80k base and their bonus is around 40k first year bringing their total first year pay to 120k..Keep in mind, this is for working 80-100 hours a week..These analysts are usually kids from top tier schools(HYPSW,Columbia, Cornell,etc..You get the idea) and have stellar grades..You can't compare them with pilots..Also, investment banking has a huge weeding process..Less than 5% of these analysts ever go on to become Managing Directors( where the money is at)...You just make it sound so simple, truth is, it's a very difficult career path...Being an airline pilot is a fairly easy job that you can do with average skills...Investment Banking itself is not hard, it's getting in and staying there/moving up...I have plenty of investment banking MD's in my family so I know what I'm talking about...

Every generation of pilots resents the generation after them because the had it easier than they did. The generation before us had to spend years sitting sideways as an FE before they got a seat at the controls of an airliner, and so on and so forth.

Most of us had to spend a decade or more just to get into that E190 FO seat at JetBlue. It makes us angry to see someone else come along, plop down $125k, and bypass those years of living in the trenches of the industry trying to build flight time while eating ramen noodles and living in run down crashpads.

If one is a decent pilot, they can fly any airplane at 1,500 hours..E190 is another RJ and flying an RJ is no different than flying an A380..I flew both and can even go on and tell you that the A380 was much easier to fly than an RJ..I think guys here make it a big deal because you will get to bypass the regional airlines via the jetblue program and they resent that because they want everyone to pay their dues because they had to..More of a jealousy/resentment issue than a safety issue..E190 is another RJ no different than an E170 or CRJ...