Also with Spirit Airlines, now the catch with Spirit Airlines is that you have to work with them for 2 years prior to jumping on the right seat.

 

Like I said, don't worry the riddle students themselves will destroy the program. I went to riddle and I know the student body very well. Trust me they will end it quick.

 

i agree with you. Theres alot of people here that take these programs for granted, but aswell theres a nice crew of awesome people that are good at what they do.

 

Hi Boiler,

When i met with AirTran at the June 03' job fair in Atlanta, I had approx 10,500 hrs TT, typed in the 767/757, was a former F/E chk airman, pilot supervisor, but I did not have 500 hrs of Part 121 PIC time. When i handed them my resume they said......

"Go get a Beech 1900 job and build time, and when you finally upgrade and get 500 hrs PIC, then call us and we will look at you. "

Not to slam the TRS guys, but I can attest to the scenario you described.

I wonder if my chances are better now, since I'm a Riddle grad ???

 

Nice avatar, looks like they did you a favor in '03!

 

Man I am really starting to feel sorry for the Pax side of things now. Anyone who can't see the reason for these programs is to maintain a ready supply of cheap labor is absolutely blind and deaf. The airlines see a possilble pilot shortage on the horizon and they are smart enough to nip that in the bud before it impacts their ability to find labor for todays cheap rates. They will do anything to prevent pay increases for pilots since that is how these low cost carriers compete with the mainline airlines.

Any pilot who thinks this is a good thing for the profession is a morron! Good luck making a better QOL for yourselves if you aren't willing to fight this crap and shut these programs down.

 

In the mid 1960's my father was approached by several airlines. He was only a private pilot but was told that at least UAL had its own flight training camp to take low or no time pilots all the way through the ratings. In the early 1990's I remember that UAL thought that there was going to be another pilot shortage and bought a dozen Frasca flight simulators in preparation for another flight training program. It never happened but the majors have always had in their minds of creating their own pilots.

Today however I think that pilot mills like ATP will be so successful that most Universities will eventually have to close their flight programs. Why waste 4 years in college when you could just go to ATP and be assured of a job at the end? In ten years flight schools will offer cadet programs for even the majors like Airtran and most jobs will come from those programs.

SkyHigh

 

Because WHEN you get furloughed (notice I said WHEN, not IF), then you will at least have a backup to fall on.

I think in todays environment (post 9/11), you'd be an idiot to spend $150k+ at ERAU to get all your certs/ratings, and a BS in Aviation Science (which is a true "BS" degree to begin with, as in Bull******), because you won't get any real decent paying jobs with that degree.

Why spend that much when you can go to another college, get a good non-aviation degree (as your backup), and then get all your certs/ratings at a local FBO?

It'll be a lot cheaper and you will be happier with your good backup degree.

 

the only unfortunate shyguy, is that the vast majority of people don't seem to do that, and places like ATP or ERAU will continue to boom as a result. Heck, when i started looking at places to go to college, the first flight school i thought of was erau, and when i saw the price, i said, i think i'll find somewhere else to go.