If you don’t have a degree, flow is your best hope unless you have military flying experience or a crazy impressive flying resume. Better to get there in 15 years than never get there at all.

Republic has been upping the number of new hires per class lately. Whether that means they are planning ahead for expansion remains to be seen, but you’ll definitely be a qualified candidate and in demand in 9 months or so. You can be awarded DCA within a few months of being on the line, folks from my class did so. The same is true for all the other bases except MIA and IAH at the moment. Upgrade into DCA currently takes about 7 months longer than earliest available upgrade into EWR or LGA at 2.5 years. Hopefully the large classes being held are a sign that more upgrades will be needed in a couple years, helping to lower those upgrade times.

You should be more than able to knock out an online degree of some sort in less than 15 years while working at another regional, if that’s what’s holding you up.

Oh that note. What’s the best course of action for a regional pilot to work on getting a Bachelors? right now I have enough credits for 1 semester. So that leaves me with 7 semesters. but once I finish my Commercial, multi, and CFI I could count my pilot certs as credits toward the end of my degree right? Maybe eliminating 2 semesters? So, that would only leave me with roughly 5 semesters left. As a regional pilot, how many classes do pilots typically take during a semester in order to work and have time for their class?

Thank you for the input!

Great! Thank you very much for the input as well as information in regards to DCA. I do appreciate it!

Not sure how flight ratings can translate into college credit unless you are doing some type of worthless aviation degree.



As a Regional pilot, you will need to do your college online. It is just not feesable to get the same time off every week.

What degree would you recommend an airline pilot/hopeful get, then? Considering the only thing they really care about is that you have the block checked, why not do something you enjoy, and might actually learn something useful for your career? Yes, you could make the argument that you should have something you could fall back on should you lose your medical, but you can still get that with an aviation degree (airport management, if that's your thing, or parlay it into a Masters in aviation safety, or something).

It really depends on what degree you go for. That's exactly what I did with my school, since the Army paid for all of my ratings, I just used the FAA cert to show that it was completed, and checked the block for the credit. You usually have to be careful that you don't go over arbitrary numbers for how much external credit you have, though... That's stuff you need to talk with your adviser about, though. There are plenty of respected (read: regionally accredited) schools with online programs that you should be able to apply aviation ratings towards credit. You just have to find what's right for you.

I believe Utah Valley University has an online professional pilot program, and is regionally accredited. (I was looking at going there years ago when I was a helicopter guy, and not interested in fixed wing...).

Excelsior has online degree programs as well, and I had good communication with them, just never got into it.

I ended up at Bridgewater, if you care, but they don't have much of an online presence for aviation just yet. (I was only able to get I think two major courses done that way.)

I started my Masters with Florida Tech; not sure what they have for Bachelor's online with aviation focus.

It comes down to this. What if you suddenly have heart problems, Epilepsy, or something else one the long list of conditions that will disqualify you from a First Class FAA Medical? That aviation degree is worth about as much as the paper it is written on. Diversify, get a degree in something else you are interested in so you have something to fall back on in-case the unexpected happens. The only instance where an aviation degree can be beneficial is when an R-ATP is attached with it. Otherwise you are right, all it is worth is a box check.