Building time?????

[mcooper]

Let me say straight off, for the purposes of THIS post, I could care a less what people think about the cost of the academies, or what promises they do or don't keep! I have been doing a lot of reading on this site and jetcareers.com lately and know all the different opinions, etc.

That said, my question is mostly for those folks that keep saying the academy is too expensive, there are no guarantees and you could do just as well going the FBO/CFI route. Please, I am looking for ideas, not opinions. There is a fine line.


I am 33. I have just over 200 hours with a PPL-Instrument. I have a family and a successful career for all intensive purposes. However, I have had the desire to make a career of flying since I was probably 10 -12. Without going into all the details of why I didn't do this earlier, all I can say is, I am at a point after 11 years of the corporate world, I want to do what I enjoy instead of doing what makes the most money, but being miserable? Yeah, I know there are a lot of miserable pilots right now too, but that's a different kind of miserable.


Anyway, to my question...(sorry for the long prologue)

With me being 33 and time not on my side, why wouldn't I choose the academy route if there is a chance (notice I said chance people!) that I could get my career in a regional with around 1000/100? There are several examples of people on here and that I've talked to that actually have successfully done the academy route so I know it works in some cases. Once again, I know this is SOME, not all cases.

Personally, I could go out tomorrow and buy into a partnership or buy a slighty older plane to build my time, but by my calculations, that would take a lot longer to built the time that people are saying you would need nowadays not going through the academy. I'd have to be working at my current job still to afford it, so it's not like I could be flying all the time.

If I just went ahead and got my CFII-MEI, quit my job and managed to get a job at an FBO, how long would it take to build the time necessary to have a chance to get on with the regionals?
2, 3, 4 years?

Just a final note...these are not sarcastic questions to voice opinion for the academies and I'm not looking for arguments about whether academies suck, etc. Since there are so many people saying the FBO/CFI route is cheaper/better, I am simply looking for realistic examples/suggestions of how I could get enough hours going the FBO/CFI (or ownership route) where I would have the necessary qualifications to get interest from the regionals in the same timeframe?

 

[bobbysamd]

Well, since you asked . . . . .

I was about your age when I started flying. I learned under Part 61. It took me a few YEARS to earn my ratings because of my work schedule. I had no designs on a career at the time, so it didn't matter that much; however, I'm convinced that I would have learned more, better and faster had I trained in a more disciplined situation, i.e. a school or academy.

Then, when I went to work flying full-time, I taught at ERAU, which is as much an "academy" as they come. Then, I taught at FlightSafety, which, too, was an "academy." I saw from the other side of the desk how effective academy training can be. So, those are reasons why I like Part 141 flight schools. They are "schools," which imply motivation, hopefully, studying, preparation, and discipline, all of which foster momentum, which, in turn, fosters time-effective training. For these reasons, I think you have the right idea. If I had it to do all over again, I would have opted for full-time attendance at an aviation college to finish my ratings and to earn a second Bachelor's, in Aviation.

In your case, the key would be to get a job instructing at your school. That way, you at least have a fighting chance of building time. If you finish your training fast but cannot find a job, then, as you have observed, you'd be in the same boat as if you went to work at an FBO.

That's my $0.02 on the 141 school route.

One other suggestion for you might be a place like Mesa Airlines Pilot Development. This is a 141 school operated by Mesa Airlines. It is an 18-month program where grads finish with their Commercial-Instrument ratings and an A.S. in Aviation Technology. Grads can interview with Mesa Airlines upon course completion. Contrary to what you might have heard, the only promise Mesa makes to new students is they might get "the interview." The truth is, the interview is yours to lose. You have to screw up badly not to get it, though you have to jump through myriad hoops to get it. I saw it happen, though, with one of my students. The best recommendation for MAPD is that it works.

Hope this helps. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Timebuilder]

If you know enough to ask this question, then you have been paying attention, and that's good. However, I'm a little troubled. Here's why.

You said two important things; the fact that you are in your early 30's (not really a deal-breaker) and that you have a family.

Whoa.

I'm sure I don't have to point out to you how important your family is, or the necessity of being able to provide for them. Can you continue to provide for them in the manner to which they are accustomed, or will your wife have to shoulder more of the burden in order for you to do this? If you are able to continue your family lifestyle, or if your wife is as gung-ho as you are, then no problem.

You may know from my posts here that I finally decided to get off my butt and do this when I was older than you are. The difference is that I jettisoned my fiance in 1984, and I was not able to find a good replacement after that. Sometimes, as I have seen with so many friends, you're just better off with no wife than you are with the wrong wife.

If I had been supporting a wife and children ten years ago, I would perhaps have gotten my private, but most likely would not have been willing to go from 50k to 18k for a first officer job at a regional, and be away from home half the time. It would be a different matter if I had become established as a working pilot first, and then started a family with a supportive spouse while working a schedule that allowed for family time.

Getting back to your question, the CFI/FBO route is cheaper and slower, but the academy/bridge program is quicker and gets you into the system sooner. You already know that there are no guarantees that the academy system will provide a regional job, or even an instructing job if the times stay bad for a few more years. That's a gamble that only you can evaluate.

I will tell you that you have to be 100% passionate about flying to make this work, and you have to have your home team behind you 100% also.

Good luck with this very important decision.