"I personally don't believe the legacy carriers give a squat either way. Why should they, you can't make them!"

DAL/UAL/AA are deeply concerned, because the don't want to park airplanes. They realize unless something changes, that they will not have enough pilots to man their aircraft because of the worsening Pilot Shortage. I am taking about MAINLINE aircraft...not RJs!

 

It'll make it easier for me to believe in the pilot shortage once Atlas Air gives me a call

 

I have FO's that claim to have $150K student loans to ERAU. I have no reason to doubt their claim, but I do doubt the logic of such a debt load for the pay/ jobs offered. I honestly don't know how you service that much debt on Regional FO pay, or for that matter on any Regional pay. By the time you pay rent, groceries, utilities, and interest on the note is there anything left

I guess if you and your family live in your parents basement until you're on mainline 3rd year pay maybe it works. But is it really worth it? I paid for my flight training cash, and yes it did take a little longer but I'm convinced being debt free is the only way to survive this "career."

 

Most of those loans will never be repaid. The schools should be shut down for allowing that kind of loan for a $30,000/year. Most of the students with this type of loan debt were told it would take half that amount and by the time you realize you are screwed you have no choice but to finish.

 

Good luck discharging student loans through the bankruptcy process.

Is it the fault of the "schools" or the people that apply and sign for the loans to attend those "schools"?

 

You can rinse and repeat that statement for every aspect of this industry....for most anyway.

 

I don't blame the kids. They are new to the world and it is easy to dupe someone who has no life experience to know better. Preying on our young. Sad.

 

It's crazy to go past $100k in educational costs for anything but a few high paying fields like trauma doctor or personal injury lawyer and yet Embry Riddle/similar turn out pilots with a $150k tab every year by the thousands. This makes it obvious there is some source of cash other than the job itself paying for all that, and that money is not the only perceived form of value received from the job or else there is simply a false idea what the low end regional salaries are. So in short, these pilots who make $25k towing a $1,000 a month bank loan clearly can't be paying it. Their families are, because banks will not approve education loans that are excessive. Maybe the thing to do is make sure the families know what they are getting their kids who want to be airline pilots into rather than targeting the pilot students themselves. We know the latter don't listen to good advice, maybe the parents have some sense.

 

At least at Embry-Riddle you get a good education for $150k and a low interest loan.
At places like ATP, you get power washed though a 5 month zero to hero program for $80k ++, and a loan for 10-15%

I wold agree that personally I would recommend neither though. That kind of debt in today's world is ludicrous.

 

Is ERAU a good education? Most people that attended there that I talked to told a much different story about the quality of their education.

You can get a BS in Physics (or engineering, mathematics, or many other fields) from one of the best universities in the country for less than $65k in state tuition (including tuition/room/board/books/etc...) and then do your flight training part 61 for less than $35k. In-state tuition at some of the best state universities are about $3500 a semester.