Delta Connection/Comair Academy

[OhioFlyO]

Here's what Delta Academy told me. I can get a job there as an instructor and teach for 800hrs. After this, I will be guaranteed and interview with one of their connections. The catch?? I have to redo my CFI and CFII with them and then eventually get my MEI. The cost? A mere $25,000!!!

 

[52vincent]

Ohio

You got to be kidding me, are you serious? That is absolutely ludicrous.
Is the certificate they issue to their CFI's any different than the one I have in my wallet?
Oh well all we can do is keep on pluggin.

 

[bobbysamd]

Comair

Here's what Delta Academy told me. I can get a job there as an instructor and teach for 800hrs. After this, I will be guaranteed and interview with one of their connections. The catch?? I have to redo my CFI and CFII with them and then eventually get my MEI. The cost? A mere $25,000!!!

That is outrageous.

In case anyone needs a definition of pay-for-interview, just read the above.

 

[172driver]

Got any other top regionals to interview at?

 

[StrykerFL]

Thats typical

Got any other top regionals to interview at?

You see. That’s what I have been talking about every time that I have posted comments about CAA/DCA. Most of the instructors (not all of them) have this same jackass attitude like they are the shizznit because they have a guaranteed interview.

When I look back on it, there is still no way that I would have stayed to work there and put up with all of the BS just for the opportunity at an interview. I don't need their help, if that’s what you want to call it, and never did.

 

[OhioFlyO]

Hi everyone,
Yeah, I was serious about the post before. I actually emailed someone from PanAm Academy and they said the same thing. They also happened to mention that Delta Academy had a long waiting list for their CFI jobs. It's too bad I don't have 25 grand to blow, cuz I wouldn't mind getting my CFI again. I mean, I did it once....I wouldn't care if I had to take the test again. I'm just getting a little discouraged, I guess. I've been out of college since last year and still no job. But oh well, I'll keep pluggin' away!

"Maybe I could learn how to be a truck driver. Mav, you still got that number for that truck driving school we saw on TV? Truckmaster I think it is...I might need that"

 

[172driver]

I feel for you like I do for all aspiring pilots in today's industry but you have to look at the other side of it. There are many students who have spent $50K plus and a lot of work to get their ratings at DCA. When they chose the school it was because of perks like the CFI job, multi time, airline travel benefits, and the interview. How do you think they would feel if the school turned around and hired from the outside? It has happened and, believe me, it's not good for student or employee morale.

Competitive mins at Comair right now are around 4000-5000 with 121 time. Academy guys are being hired with 1000/100. It's a pretty good place to be in today's environment. You gotta make the investment in them before they're going to help you out though. I agree it sounds outrageous to redo your ratings but they really have no other way to provide you with a shot at the rewards.

As for Stryker, obviously he's too good for DCA and will get his interview some other way. He's a real bright one...paid the $50K and decided not to cash in on the rewards. See you in about five years buddy. Hope you enjoy instructing. With your attitude, the interview won't go so well anyway.

 

[Clancy]

It sounds to me that a few people on this board feel as if you can just buy your way into the right seat of a regional jet.

 

[172driver]

Choosing to do your training and CFI work at a quality flight academy is what we're talking about here. Those who choose to attend DCA must work extremely hard to obtain their ratings and work hard to excel as CFI's, just like anywhere else in aviation.

Those who put in the time and effort are rewarded with the benefits I listed above, including a guaranteed interview with Comair. Not a guaranteed job. Nobody is buying anything, only choosing where to do their training. Some schools have brand new airplanes, some have scenic training areas, some have advanced sims, some pay very well, some have guaranteed interviews. It's a matter of choices.

The advantage to doing it here is that you get your foot in the door at a quality regional and interview alongside many applicants with much higher time. The airline feels no pressure, I'm sure, to hire anybody they don't feel will do an excellent job.

 

[BankAccount=0$]

Buyer Beware.........

If you're willing to bend over and take all of the BS that the academy has to offer their CFI's, then by all means just write them a check and head on down to Sanford. But of course be prepared to be passed over in favor of a foreign "intern" who isn't allowed to work in the U.S. When I was there it was common practice to save money by hiring foreigners over American CFI's to teach at the academy. In my opinion the academy has great training, but the politics and the management have always been sub-par.
Oh, if anybody reads this who is there, does Susan Burell (sp.) still ride her crotch rocket to school?? She was probably the only one from management when I was there that was worth keeping.

 

[Lucky]

Stryker or is it now bankaccount=0 ?

There is no such thing as a foreign student internship. If they are on an J-1 Visa, they can applyfor a paid position as anyone else that has gone through the Academy. No special treatment at all. If anything they spend less time here as a CFI due to visa limitations opening new CFI slots to more students.

If you were really taking it up the @$$ so much you should have tried vasiline. Probably would have been easier to take.

BTW who did you piss off so badly that you had to leave?

 

[DAS at 10/250]

You have to laugh

I find it amusing that there are all of these 200 hours pilots who know how aviation works and somehow think they are qualified to hand out some advice.

In no way do I wish ill on any other pilot. But, these 200 hour pilots will soon learn. And if they are at Comair, PanAm, ER, etc., they are going to have some rude awakenings.

Any person considering spending 50K on flight training should really do some soul searching. Several fine universities such as Univ. of Okla, Univ. on N. Dakota, and Texas A&M, just to name a few, have excellent training, and for around 20K. It is even less at a local FBO.

And I assure you, and I know, the PTS requires the same standards of performance regardless of which flight school takes your money.

Corporate, Cargo, Fractional, Regional, and Mainline are all the same. Minimums and a little luck to get an interview, pass the written, complete the sim ride. Wait. Start training.

Your path in aviation will be determined by your abilities as a pilot. Not by how much money you throw at it.

Read this. Ignore it. And in two years remember, I told you.

 

[daddysquared]

You know, if there is one thing that I have learned during my short life, it is that everything in this life is so random. In some cases it is impossible to say which way is the "best" way for anything, unless, of course, the path you chose worked out for you. Especially in this industry.

I have done all my training (so far) at a flight school that has charged a lot more than plenty of other avenues, and perhaps less than some others. I don't have any gauranteed anything other than the opportunity to work as a CFI at the school after I complete my training, (that is IF I complete it there). But after that, I'm on my own. There are a number of CFIs at this school who have now been there for quite sometime and have been pounding the proverbial pavement trying to land a job with a regional, cargo, 135, whatever. Tough business.

Then again, there are others that made it just fine training at an FBO, and instructing for a while. Again, it is all random.

Now, we have in this string, some views from a very small number who have attended the Comair/Delta Academy and the views that I have read are from two completely different ends of the spectrum. It's a love/hate thing. 172driver had a good experience and it has obviously worked out for him (congrats again, by the way). And Stryker hated it. Or Bankaccount or whoever.

I think two cliches fit pretty well here:

1. Whether you think you will (succeed, enjoy, fail, etc.) or whether you think you won't, you are probably right.

and

2. Hindsight is always 20/20

Peace Out.

 

[Clancy]

everywhere in the business world it matters more of who you know and not what you know the academy in SFB is no different. If you can't relate and "play well with others" you are going to be ousted. This is not just DCA/CCA it is everywhere in the business world and especially the airline business. From what it sounds like from some people on this board, it didn't take the academy to get "black balled" from your career.

 

[BankAccount=0$]

I'm not Stryker!!!!!!

OK 172, since you completely missed the entire point of my first post, I'm going to make it perfectly clear that I have not been down to the academy personally since 2000. When I was there, the academy was a pretty bad place to be. Management was a revolving door, we had 3 chief pilots in the year I was there, the maint. director quit, and there was no clear leadership in Sanford since the president of the school was based in CVG. I had a lot of friends who stayed on to instruct and are now driving the RJ's out of CVG on a daily basis. I also had a lot of friends who dotted all of the i's and crossed all of their t's who were passed over in favor of foreign students. Now why did the academy hire these foreign (and competent) instructors over American CFI's? Simple economics, the foreign instructors were not on J-1 visas. The academy just said that their working as CFI's was part of the program and that's how the foreigners got to build time. Now you might ask well how did the academy benifit from this deal?? Simple, unless you have a J-1 visa you are NOT permitted to work in the U.S., and these indivduals did not have J-1's therefore they were considered interns and NOT paid to work for the academy. I personaly could care less if the academy wanted to hire them over Americans because I had no intention of staying at the academy after I got my multi-comm ticket. But it was pretty shady for the academy to tell you that they hire their own CFI's to work at the academy, and then help them transition to the airline with the guaranteed interview, when they were more than happy to stab a future loyal employee in the back to save a couple of bucks in the short term.

My previous post said "Buyer Beware" for a good reason, if you plunk down 40 g's thinking that you're going to get a job with the academy and then go to the airline then you might have a big surprise at the end of your training. As I said before my goal was never to stay at the academy and instruct there to get to the airline. I went for the training and reputation alone, I was actually going to go to Flight Safety, but the whole uniform thing wasn't for me, so I chose Comair instead. The academy had great training and some really good instructors, but the sheltered environment and the thought of guys becoming captains at an airline having never flown anything or anywhere not OK'd by Comair gives me the creeps. Good luck in your training/ career, I still think very highly of the academy in the training sense, but the lousy management and politics still leave a bad taste in my mouth. Thats not to say that I didn't recommend the academy to one of my former students. In fact he's working on his commercial up in JAX and loving every minute of it. Just watch your back, cause the academy has no loyalty for the students or their employees.