Skywest flight school - AeroGuard
 

Looking for info on AeroGuard flight school for my nephew who is graduating from high school this spring.

I read their website, but need some real word intelligence.

Just briefly ran through their website. Haven't heard of it before but seems to be a fine flight school.

I'm not sure what the cost is or what the relationship with SkyWest entails but if there is any kind of written commitment to SkyWest, I would be thourough in your research.

SkyWest is a great place to be, but I'm always weary of flight schools that have "connections" to regionals because it's unnecessary in this hiring climate.

Almost every regional is hiring all they can and committing to any one regional now may only limit your nephews options in the future when every airline is hiring.

This industry changes so much every day.
When hiring starts exploding at the majors during the next several years when he finishes flight school and his 1500 hours, I'd want to keep his options open without being tied to a regional.

My 2 cents - go visit several flight schools and talk to the instructors. Get a feel for the place. Find a few you like and choose the cheapest one. Airlines don't care where their pilots get their ratings and having 75k of debt won't help him get hired at United, nor make him a better pilot.

I went to a small mom and pop outfit in FL and spent a 5th of the price of one of these big name brand schools. I've never even been asked where I got my ratings and certainly never had issues getting hired because of it. As long as maintenance is good, instructor is good and he gets along with him, that's all that matters.

So unless SkyWest is funding the program with no strings attached, I'd look around before signing up.

All of this.

Good info. I’ll look at other schools in AZ also.

Thank you!

Regionals are trying to get candidates emotionally invested in their particular company as early as possible... get 'em on the hook so to speak.

If there is financial consideration provided for basic flight training, then there will be an obligation, which is reasonable.

I would not accept any sort of obligation for anything other than cash or flight training below the ATP level.

Some programs may offer a slight benefit in seniority, it's OK to do that as long as you were going to work there anyway.

But your choice of regional employer should be based on career progression considerations to the majors (and geography if that even matters to you, typically more important for older folks with families). Avoid the usual bottom-feeders in most cases.

Never heard of them.

I don’t think this school is actually affiliated with SkyWest. Sounds like they have an instructor pathway agreement with SkyWest and help you get tuition reimbursement. Most flight schools have both these things.

Aeroguard was PanAm. SkyWest bought a stake in Aeroguard about two years ago.

The progression was PanAm to TransPac to Aeroguard now.

Yeah that. One of my friends did all of his training there and then instructed. After completing IOE at skywest, he got a pretty nice bonus/tuition reimbursement.