Gulfstream Write Up in Plane & Pilot
 

Anyone see the write up in Plane & Pilot magazine this month? They did a full write up on the flight school/ airline. I am not an airline pilot but I have seen all the hate threads about Gulfstream. I have to be honest though, I still don't see what is so bad about them. You pay about the same price as you would going to ATP, Delta Acadamy, etc... And you would get 250 hour of turbine for that price. What's so bad about that??? I must be missing something. Just curious if anyone else saw the write up.

The problem is Gulfstream is an airline, not just a flight school, and YOU ARE PAYING them to fly as an FO on revenue flights, i.e. your are paying a company to work for them. Not to mention your filling a seat that should be filled by pilot who is being payed industry standard wage to fly that aircraft. The flight schools you metioned aren't using students instead of hired pilots to run a scheduled 121 service. Think what would happen to this profession if all airlines were to do this. That's why people hate Gulfstream.

I put it this way...

Would you pay Burger King $10,000 for training and then to flip 250 heavy whoppers, just for the experience and the chance at a job?

NO!

Gulfstream is the reason pilot pay is down...guys will work for nothing or PAY you to fly a 1900.

As said on another website: "Gulfstream B1900D the only airliner with 20 paying passengers!"

All of those "zero to hero" overnight programs are the same bottom of the barrell crap! Anything that has a garunteed interview/job in the right seat of a turbine aircraft at 300 hours is ridiculous. I don't believe captains are paid nearly enough to babysit!

Gulfstream Academy, Meas Pilot Development, Jet university.... they are all the same-- stay away

ATP is not in that group. They offer an excellent training package for a fixed price. If you are interested in being an airline pilot give ATP a serious look.

-LAFF

I do understand what a lot of you are saying about Gulfstream but what still gets me is it costs $$$ to get your ratings and to build time. No getting around that. There are cheaper ways (as in getting your CFI and building time that way) but to even get to that point can cost 15-25k depending on flight schools and how you go about it. Why not go to a place like Gulfstream where yeah, you are "paying" to fly right seat but at the same time you are flying in the 121 enviroment, building turbine time, and your flying in actual conditions. This seems like a much better training enviroment than just flying around the pattern at your local airport building time. The whole "airline industry" is all about building time and expierence and this type of school looks like it would give you the best of both worlds. Of course considering your going to pay for it somewhere until getting hired by a regional.

Again, I am not trying to start something, I just have trouble "hating" those people that might go the Gulfstream route. I don't know anyone personally that has done it and I myself am not part of Gulfsteam. I am just a private pilot that flies for fun right now! :D

It's not about whether right seat 1900 time is better than CFI time (I don't think it is, in the overall scheme of things). The issue is NOBODY should pay for a job in this business under ANY circumstances. It's just not right and doesn't do the career justice.

From my experience on the matter (which is pretty limited) I have talked to many different pilots who work from everything from Corporate to Airlines and they all have said get your time asap to get that seniority. They said most people in the industry wont care where you went as long as you have the time. Thats all I can say about people I have talked to about it but MOST of the people here dislike it. I can see both sides but cant understand how you could hold it against someone to go there myself. Lets face it whether anyone wants to admit it or not a lot of people on here (including myself) are hardheaded and thats fine thats just how they are and their set in their ways. Do whats best for you and in the end if it bites ya in the butt...at least you tried.

Well, if you chose to go there, that is your right. But no gulfstreamer will ever jumpseat when I'm a captain, anywhere.

At no point did I say I was going there..... I plan on instructing where I go to school right now....