If you had to do your training again....

[UKflyer]

Hello,

I have been very impressed since i came across this site, on how much useful information it yields to those who are just starting up.. I know most of you guys have tonnes of experience, so i would just like to ask, if you had to do your training again (ie. CPL/ME/CFI etc..) would you have done anything different?

This would help me loads.

Thanks.

 

[FlyboyPhil]

At least one thing different...

I attended Westwind Aviation Academy in Phoenix(now Pan Am Flight training). Some other folks have had very bad experiences there, but I received excellent training and was able to finish only slightly over budget. Wherever you go take responsibility for your training and to make sure the 'T's are crossed and the "I"s are dotted.
I finally got a job flying multi engine airplanes at 1450TT and 49ME.
I think I would have been ahead of the game if I had attended allatps for my training. I did my MEI there when I had 1300TT, 900 dual given and wasn't too impressed with the 800 hour MEI that they assigned me, but I hear their inhouse instructors are better. I could have been in a regional just in time to be furloughed had I had the multi time that allatps grads have coming out of school. I now have ~2200TT with ~800ME, am in one regional pool and interview with another in a couple weeks.
Good luck in your training.. and remember to take charge of your own training..
Philip

 

[jdru25]

I went down to Riddle in the fall of 1999. I was on defered flight my first semester and didn't get to start flying until the spring. I was very frustrated at first and then I got hooked up with a very high ranking flight instructor there. I started my instrument rating in January and finished it 6 weeks later. It was a lot of hard work but my instructor worked me hard throughout my schooling and got me ahead of my class. I was very happy with my training down there and I had some really wonderful instructors. There are a lot of young instructors there now, so I'm glad I got to learn from someone with lots of experience. I would go back in a heartbeat and I don't regret a thing.

 

[BRA]

I went to Riddle in fall of 98 and graduated Dec 2000. I moved pretty smoothly through the ratings. Only did up to my multi there. Back then it was $23000 fixed price for all for ratings. Private,inst, comm, multi. They don't do that anymore. Get the CFI ratings away from riddle, unless you don't mind spending $. I had no family help so now i have $50,000 in student loans to pay back for the ratings and the degree. (Aeronautical Science). There are cheaper ways to get to an airline, I'm not sure if i would make any changes yet though. I really liked the florida experience. I think a lot of what I learned was good stuff at riddle, also a lot of it will be forgotten before I start flying equipment where it would be used. (777's) That school does know how to get you excited about the industry though. If you gotta go to college and $ doesn't matter Riddle is the place to go. Lot's of people there with your same interests. Otherwise a separate degree in a (backup) field may be a good choice.

 

[jdru25]

I was in the fixed price program at Riddle! That was one of the best parts of the deal. I agree with your view on the school totally, the Florida experience was well worth it.

 

[BRA]

The girls at 600 North, Razzels......nice to look at. The people in florida just look better in general. No way they look like that around perdue, or whatever they have up north. And florida has all the good music, that you don't find up north. The cars are awesome. The weather is just awesome. It's not like people do solo cross countries in hard IMC in icing condtions up north anyway. Spring break comes to you in florida. I don't regret it, I'm glad i went there. You really have to keep an eye open on flight schools though. SOmetimes i wonder if the horror stories I hear are from people that didn't have common sence, or just didn't research things good enough. I tought at a school off campus, mostly multi students. (Philair) I got people who had been "screwed" at riddle. From the outside looking in, i could tell that the problem wasn't all riddle. Not that my students were stupid, they were just young, and they just didn't have all the information. Getting your ratings in a costly and efficient manner is a responsiblity. You can't just sleep walk through it.

 

[BRA]

You may also want to chose a flight school that you may also want to work for someday. You probably do not want to work at a school that has no twin engine planes around. It is an unwrtten rule that schools like to hire "home grown" instructors to do their instructing. They want instructors who did their training with them. I know this is the case with Spectrum Aviation, in Daytona Beach. The owner told me. If an owner sees how well you progress through your ratings, they will want you working for them later, and you'll be instructing in their twins later. No matter how nice an owner is, or how much $ they pay you, the school is not gonna help you in the end if they don't have any twins. If they don't have twins, then they better have a twin engine charter department you can get into when you get higher up in the company. It is all a bit of a gamble, if you instruct at riddle, you will get into a twin someday based on senority. I was riddle trained, and my flight school on the same airport as riddle liked that so they hired me. Senoirty didn't rule where i worked, and I got into the twins faster, and i advanced faster then anyone working at riddle could. In the end I was so glad I didn't bother working at embry riddle. But this could have gone the other way too.-

 

[jdru25]

Spring Break was the best down there. I instructed for Regional Air Charters all last year at school. I am now back home instructing and the instructing is much better. Did you know Jamie Call? He worked at Phil Air and is now at ASA. Some friends at school told me Phil downsized his fleet after the 11th.

 

[BRA]

I wasn't there when he was there. It's no longer called Philair. It's in a different building now, and it's now called Falconair. The huge changes happened right after I left. the "crash", sept 11, combined with a lot of bad luck and possibly poor planning led to the big changes. The place was very good to me though, and there are a lot of good people there. It's just under new ownership. Possible the best kept secret in daytona too, they are getting more planes, and the instructors now make $20 an hour. Sounds hard to believe but it's true.

 

[jdru25]

Wow! 20 dollars an hour. That's unheard of in Daytona. I have some buddies looking for CFI jobs in Daytona now, I'll have to tell them to check that place out.