It's not a waste of time unless you consider the fact that it's really not much of an experience. You don't become a good pilot in 200 hours over 4 months. That doesn't even expose you to a quarter of the weather we see throughout the year.

Captains shouldn't be teaching basic airmanship with 50 pax in the back.

Texaspilot76, I don't know if the airlines have programs to deal with this, but there are 250 hour SIC provisions along the line of: ...performing the duties of PIC while under the supervision of a PIC...". FAR 61.159. You probably know more about that than I do, though.

Me either, wait till something happens and these regionals will change their mins.

however a lot of places also list what they credit as PIC for the job/upgrade. and that usually means that you're the one that signed for the A/C, and were the final decision holder, AKA, the guy in the left seat.

I know in 92, a nursing major was the only one that the USN wouldn't accept for AOCS. The reason, the navy needed nurses more than they needed pilots.

I see a few points some of you are trying to make, which are mostly redundant -- "why would you pay 27k for a CRJ course?"...... "I wouldn't fly in the back or want to be the Captain with one of these FO's"......

Let me start off by saying that I currently go to JetU. Yes, I went the traditional flight training route and was close to getting my CFI when I made the decision to come out here. I had been "sitting on the fence" between deciding whether to instruct or come here for quite some time.

Some of the factors that brought me here:

• I wanted the extra training. Sure, I've been told a thousand times that what you learn as a CFI is priceless -- more than what you initially learn during training. However, from the research that I did (talking to graduates who already made it through), I learned that the education you receive here is in-depth and puts you far ahead of people in your class at the airlines. You spend 3 days covering a system that Pinnacle might spend 3 hours talking about. Bottom line -- by the time you get out of here, as I learned, you'll know the plane inside and out, plus some. Now I'm seeing that first hand, and I don't regret coming here one bit.
• The job. Yeah, they have the arrangement with Pinnacle which has been working out so far (for the most part). All your training material comes straight from Pinnacle including sim profiles, flows, etc. But outside of Pinnacle -- guys from here have gone to Air Wisconsin, PSA, and now Mesa.
• Being a more qualified and marketable candidate. All of those airlines mentioned above (and now a couple more) will take guys from here with a Comm/ME because they really value the training we receive here. Go ahead -- hit the quote button now and start trying to argue this. Bottom line -- those regionals prefer jet training -- so save a click and send the e-mail to the airlines. Other airlines have been trying to get an arrangement going with JetU, but from my undertanding they can't because Pinnacle's contract with the school gives them "first pick" from Jet U candidates. Why do they value the training here? Hmm, maybe because the 20% - 30% washout rate some of these places are seeing is something they'd like to change. But what do I know.
• I had the money. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I don't think the 27 grand isn't overpriced. Hell, the only costs this place has (for the CRJ program) is staffing and the simulator. But I had the money, I did my research, and though there are some problems here, it's worth putting up with. Would I come here if I were already in 80k debt? Absolutely not.

To those of you who say "hell I wouldn't want to be a captain with one of these guys".... or "I won't fly Pinnacle"....... please, don't forget all the other airlines out there these days hiring 250TT guys (PSA, Piedmont, Mesa, etc). Would you fly them? Would you fly any airline in Europe?

Could I have gone to one of these places without JetU and it's fat price tag? Probably. But one other reason I came here was to make sure training would work out -- since I didn't want to end up in that 20 - 30%. Could it still happen to me? Sure. Has it happened to Jet U guys? Yes. Has every JetU guy that's wanted a CRJ job gotten one.... eventually? I'm pretty sure, yes.

But I think those risks -- going from a 172 to a CRJ -- are greatly minimized with a course like this. I have plenty of confidence in myself and my study habits, but I do know that bad things happen to good people.... and minimizing the risks was worth the cost for me in addition to the other reasons I stated above. I am sure that of those who have washed out of training at the airlines, most probably knew their stuff -- but had a hard time with the transition.

Again -- is it worth it? So far, I'd say yes. But only time will tell. The program is incredibly challenging -- definitely not a walk in the park. But the instruction you receive here is great -- from instructors who were/ are at Emirates, Comair, corporate, and cargo carriers. They know their stuff.

The last point I want to make is that JetU is not PFT. Personally, I don't agree with PFT at all. JetU is simply a school advancing your knowledge of the CRJ as well as 121 ops. Because of this program, which certain airlines see as beneficial, you can get hired with much lower times. We're not paying for a job, for time, or subsidizing any training costs for any airlines.

Sorry for sounding a little like a recruiter here -- just trying to clear up some points and give some insight.

All those guys mentioned take those candidates because they know they have you by the balls for the next few years and they have massive staffing shortages. Once those shortages are fixed you'll find their marketing changing.

I'm sure ab initio training in Europe is better than the joke training programs we have here. You also don't get a book with all the possible questions on your written tests in Europe.

You can't perform the duties of PIC unless you are the Captain. You are NOT acting as PIC when you are the flying pilot.

I appreciate the comments you made earlier in your post, and can understand why someone who doesn't need to worry about the cost might select the JetU program.

However, I disagree with the paragraph above. JetU is a roundabout form of PFT. It is the airlines job to teach you 121 ops and aircraft specific training. If some PCL guys just happen to come from JetU, then that's really no big deal. However, if the PCL recruiting department is sending out emails telling applicants that they will not be considered until they first give JetU $27,000, then that is absolutely the airline pushing pilots to pay for training.

Look at it this way: When you get your private cert, instrument rating, commercial cert, and ME ratings, you are actually earning real qualifications which you can use all around this great planet of ours. But what does JetU actually QUALIFY a pilot to do? Get a job at PCL? If that's the case, then it's pay for training.