Gulfstream Academy track record

[HA25]

Why am I not surprised that you and other GIA former students are sticking up for that place. It's like a Mesa pilot defending their work rules. But the truth is it doesn't stand up. Nice try though. Gulfstream is a scam flight school preying on the gullable. If you can defend a school scamming "pilots" to sit/pay in the right seat of a 121 operation, go ahead. But let me remind you of one thing: You and your other GIA buddies are hugely outnumbered. That flight school is a big problem and puts out crappy pilots in the airline industry. Period.

he has a vested interest in defending it.. it's human nature. This is why that CNN reporter who wants to chat with GIA students is going to get no takers.. who wants to admit that they're a fail.

 

[trip]

and btw, I am proud to say that I sent this hot tip to CNN/FOX and NYTimes.. Glad to see CNN picked up on it.

Better hold that thought until you see the outcome, most likely it will be a butchered report of snippets out of context and unrecognizable to anyone inside the industry. I hope it is not.

I agree that the GIA business model attracts an unscrupulous bunch willing to take the shortcut approach to getting ahead in life, this probably says more about their character than stick and rudder skills. FWIW.

 

[HA25]

Failure? I'm sure there are thousands out there at basically every major airline and regional airline, myself included who would beg to differ.

However, you are a former SkyBus pilot.....how's that going for you? And a former ASA pilot, how much did you pay FSI to work there in the 90's? Was it 10 grand? I can't remember, maybe you can fill us in.

Skybus cost me nothing.. and yielded me with a lucrative A320 type rating which still pays the bills... and ASA didn't cost me a dime when I went thru. I was there subsequent to that program.

But either way, there is no comparison to having to in effect buy a type rating to get a job (this is common in the expat market) .. to buying FLIGHT TIME with paying passengers on board! When I went thru initial at ASA, we weeded out quite a few, including an Airforce F15 driver that month.. Even when pay for training started (which it soon ended with in a couple of years) it was no foregone conclusion you had a job, just because you paid to learn the E120 PRIOR to employment.

 

[CX880]

The problem is not GIA. It isn't ERAU. It isn't any one institution. The problem is that somewhere along the line we stopped training PILOTS. We instead move people through abbreviated pipelines, checking boxes and hoping against all hope that technology and luck will save them when the proverbial feces hits the rotating air movement device. Safety won't improve until we get back to basics and adhere to the time honored and blood proven building blocks of creating airmen and airwomen, not systems managers engaging in OJT.

The captain of 3407 is undeniably at fault for the death of his passengers. It was his sacred duty to care for and protect them and on that night his skills were found wanting. But... He was the product of a system. In my mind, the system that created him is equally culpable in the deaths of those people. If it hadn't had been this crew it would have been another. In every sense of the term, this was an
"accident waiting to happen" because of the training philosophy we have collectively embraced.

ERAU gets flak because of the notorious tool types that come out of there. Hey, if you want to spend 100k+ to go to riddle I could care less. However GIA and these other PFT places are the problem. They are reinforcing what you said about the lower and lower caliber of pilots of the new generation post 911 that have been taught that the bare minimum is OK and that taking short cuts is OK as well. Well what happens is the Pinnacle crash, Comair crash, and the Colgan crash. The worst part is they try to justify the 250 hours of paid time to sit right seat as no different than earning a college degree or any other career investment. The difference is that you don't need to pay 30000 to sit right seat on a crappy 1900 right seat. It's all free if you've earned it.

 

[flynryan15]

Anyone else see the irony in a a couple pilots from Gojets and Skybus pointing fingers at another airline and calling them a problem?:smash:

 

[HA25]

Anyone else see the irony in a a couple pilots from Gojets and Skybus pointing fingers at another airline and calling them a problem?:smash:

The fact that you would compare GoJet to Skybus shows why this bares no response, but incase you're attention span is short.. refer to my prior post. At Skybus, I flew with a group of very top notch airman who came from many backgrounds.. furloughed Majors' and a few retured ones... My sim partner was career Airforce.. I'd put that group up against your pilot group any day of the week pal. I made no attempt to hide working at SX on this forum because under my set of circumstances I saw nothing wrong with taking the job, and the upside potential it had was ligit. Were it not for 100/barrel oil, we'd still be there, and our union would have begin to fix the wages that that CAL re-tred imposed on us after the founder of the airline was kicked out..

You don't know anything about SX other than what you read on here, which is to say little.. That A320 type rating and my PIC experience on the airplane has since been a Godsend and the earnings I've been able to make as a result far greater than anything I can get in the US Job market.. So I have absolutely no regrets.

Now how do you compare Skybus to GoJets (a scab airline), or for that matter either of them to GIA? The discussion here is about the QUALITY of the airman that GIA produces, and the lack of experience they have when they join the workforce since they're bypassing a lot of formative CFI (PIC) work in many cases... The pilots I flew with at SX were for the most part 10000+ hour ATP's with in some cases decades of experience.. DAL, USAir, UAL, NWA, Ryan International (he was their #1 seniority), Jet Blue, American, etc.. Draw the parallels for me, since I'm clearly slow.

 

[SEVEN]

Hey! This thread is about bashing the crappy Gulfstream outfit. How did we get off topic on Skybus. I agree Skybus was a sham outfit waiting to fail from the begining. But, they can't be compared to GO---JETS. Guys that are furloughed will do almost anything to keep a flying job. That's what supported Skybus. Did they help the cause of industry as a whole? No. But they barely lasted 2 weeks. So I propose they didn't make much of a dent at all in the grand scheme of things. Skybus=small potatoes.

 

[WSurf]

I'm afraid the case for GIA being the source of the poor airmanship which caused these accidents fails to take the chain of causation to it's ultimate genesis. The fact that GIA grads have been involved in so many high profile incidents as of late is a compelling coincidence but it ignores the true problems to be found in training throughout aviation today.

I recieved my training through ERAU in the early '90s. At that point in time my instructors had literally thousands of hours of dual given. Basic airmanship (flying the airplane) was the overarching focus of all of the training I recieved. By basic airmanship I mean I was expected to intimately understand how to "fly the wing." The aviate, navigate, communicate rule was strictly applied, discipline was constantly reinforced and we all enjoyed the benefit of having instuctors who were truly teachers and skilled in their art. By the time I finished my CFII (a real bastard of a course then) I thought they would hire me as an instructor. Their answer? Go get some more time... You aren't experienced enough. None of this was unique to Riddle at this point in history. There were many part 141 schools as equally proud of their product and jealous of maintaining their quality edge.

So, it was off to Joe Shmoe's FBO I went. Eventually I returned to Riddle as a CFI. By now, the mid 90's hiring boom began and for a while things remained ok. But as a few years went by things began to change. Good people were leaving at an ever accelerating rate for the airlines, many of them to PFT "training bond" schemes (Comair and ACA at the time). Average instuctor experience began to plummet. Pressure began to build on the CFI's from both the flight department and the students to do it faster and cheaper. The Training Course Outline was rewritten again and again to accomodate lower completion times and costs to remain competitive with other 141 flight schools. Entrance requirements also suffered, and it became the instructors duty to not only teach but to "push through" less motivated and talented students. There was talk of replacing actual aircraft time with simulator time even at the primary level in order to control rising costs. Good instructors fought these changes tooth and nail, but to no avail. Less and less time was being devoted to the basics of truly flying an airplane. By the time I left in the late '90s (never did have the money to pay for a job or endure a training bond) I was frustrated and concerned about what had happened to the quality of flight instruction at the school.

Again, this was not unique to ERAU. My feelings were echoed by friends and collegues across the training spectrum.

Flash forward about 6 years. I had finally made my way to the left seat of a regional turboprop after two airlines and flying thousands of hours as an FO, a CFI and a student. It was still a big step... Anyone who has upgraded knows what I mean. Now I had the unfortunate opportunity to bear witness to the result of the changes I had witnessed while still a CFI. While many of my FO's were talented, motivated and dedicated to learning their craft, there were also many who lacked a true understanding about how an airplane really flies. I found myself not only learning how to be a captain, but also teaching what I considered to be fundimental aircraft handling and knowledge with a load of paying passengers in the back. Over time the average experience of the FO's I worked with decreased and this "teaching" environment became more of the rule rather than the exception.

Again, this wasn't a unique situation. My frustrations were again echoed by many others in the same boat.

Do I fault the FO's I have flown with for this situation? Absolutely not. Had I been able to enjoy the fast track to the airlines they benefited from I would have taken advantage of it. It would be the apex of hyprocracy to say that I wouldn't have. Besides, being a good pilot is not a function of the number of hours in the logbook... It is the quality of the experience along the way which matters most. Look at the military and European airlines. They have low time pilots and yet those pilot have superior knowledge which compensates somewhat for what they lack in actual experience.

The problem is not GIA. It isn't ERAU. It isn't any one institution. The problem is that somewhere along the line we stopped training PILOTS. We instead move people through abbreviated pipelines, checking boxes and hoping against all hope that technology and luck will save them when the proverbial feces hits the rotating air movement device. Safety won't improve until we get back to basics and adhere to the time honored and blood proven building blocks of creating airmen and airwomen, not systems managers engaging in OJT.

The captain of 3407 is undeniably at fault for the death of his passengers. It was his sacred duty to care for and protect them and on that night his skills were found wanting. But... He was the product of a system. In my mind, the system that created him is equally culpable in the deaths of those people. If it hadn't had been this crew it would have been another. In every sense of the term, this was an
"accident waiting to happen" because of the training philosophy we have collectively embraced.

Very good Post.......

 

[flynryan15]

The fact that you would compare GoJet to Skybus shows why this bares no response, but incase you're attention span is short.. refer to my prior post. At Skybus, I flew with a group of very top notch airman who came from many backgrounds.. furloughed Majors' and a few retured ones... My sim partner was career Airforce.. I'd put that group up against your pilot group any day of the week pal. I made no attempt to hide working at SX on this forum because under my set of circumstances I saw nothing wrong with taking the job, and the upside potential it had was ligit. Were it not for 100/barrel oil, we'd still be there, and our union would have begin to fix the wages that that CAL re-tred imposed on us after the founder of the airline was kicked out..

You don't know anything about SX other than what you read on here, which is to say little.. That A320 type rating and my PIC experience on the airplane has since been a Godsend and the earnings I've been able to make as a result far greater than anything I can get in the US Job market.. So I have absolutely no regrets.

Now how do you compare Skybus to GoJets (a scab airline), or for that matter either of them to GIA? The discussion here is about the QUALITY of the airman that GIA produces, and the lack of experience they have when they join the workforce since they're bypassing a lot of formative CFI (PIC) work in many cases... The pilots I flew with at SX were for the most part 10000+ hour ATP's with in some cases decades of experience.. DAL, USAir, UAL, NWA, Ryan International (he was their #1 seniority), Jet Blue, American, etc.. Draw the parallels for me, since I'm clearly slow.

WAAAAAAAA did I hit a nerver?!?!?! For baring no response that sure is a lovely 3 paragraph essay I got trying to justify your existence as a 2 dollar truck stop lot lizard blowing its way across the country!!

Why don't you go ask the Spirit pilot group how your pay rates helped their contract negotiations? I have heard from a few Spirit pilots the wonderful impact it has had on them. Your crap rates were even felt at the regional level, because they were brought up by the arbitrator when Pinnacle pilots were trying to get a great CRJ-900 rate! Those rates hurt any pilot group operating similar equipment PERIOD!

I know of a real quality aviator that was hired at Skybus. A guy from my own company after he got fired several times and ALPA couldn't get him his job back anymore Skybus hired him. I would love to have heard him justify his antics that cost him his job, but yet he still passed the interview. I saw him in Columbus with my own 2 eyes.

 

[HA25]

Why don't you go ask the Spirit pilot group how your pay rates helped their contract negotiations? I have heard from a few Spirit pilots the wonderful impact it has had on them. Your crap rates were even felt at the regional level, because they were brought up by the arbitrator when Pinnacle pilots were trying to get a great CRJ-900 rate! Those rates hurt any pilot group operating similar equipment PERIOD!

Thanks, glad to know I had a part in sticking it to Spirit, an LCC... I take that as a point of pride as an American pilot first and foremost.