Is Sierra Academy still a good school?

[protegepilot]

I taught at Bel Air for two years. Happy to answer any questions. Worked with guys that left Sierra veeeery quickly.

Cool. Thanks, man. I will ask you some questions in the future.

The thing that stands out to me in the original post is that protege wants to be an airline pilot but is worried about moving to Sacramento, a mere 80 miles away. If moving or being away from home bothers you, you might want to rethink your future career choice. You can't always choose who you work for or where you're based in this business. Take it from me, a northern Californian living in Kentucky.

Moving or being away from home doesnt bother me. If I have to move to Sacramento, I will, but there are other choices though. I know about not being able to choose where to work. Take it from me, an American soldier living in Baghdad for 13 months.

A surprising fact that I almost found out the hard way is that not all schools that have VA programs are approved for all of the certificates. I.e; approved for comm/inst but not multi or cfi. Ask about each program, and then ask to see their document from the VA with their approved courses.

I will definitely look into that. I can't believe how shady the managment of aviation training centers can be after months of researching. Thanks for that excellent advice, PHX.

 

[Weasil]

Flight Training is a tough business to be in - and a hard one to make a profit from I'm sure. Every flight school I ever worked at had people who absolutely hated the places and others who loved it.

Including Sierra - I worked there for a couple of years and enjoyed the schedule - regular students - decent income. I do know a lot of people who went from Sierra to ATP and said that ATP was MUCH MUCH Better. Some of the common complaints were - not enough airplanes which means can't fly regularly. Too expensive. Too many stage checks in their 141 courses. Some of the common pluses were - students who worked hard and put in extra effort and time got done quickly and moved on to bigger and better things. Good place to meet other pilots - networking is extremely important in this industry.

Good luck to you.

 

[steven-o]

Any flight school is what YOU make of it. Remember flight schools are there to make money. Their best interest and your best interest are not always the same. It is like that anywhere (except maybe a mom and pop operation).

I am a former Sierra student and instructor. I have seen all kinds of people go through there from the ones who keep throwing thousands of dollars into a bottomless money pit to the ones who make it through successfully. I made it through Sierra in just over $50k and just under 3 years. 3 years may seem like a long time but again it is all what you make of it, I did slack off a little bit.

As far as the quality of education. I would disagree with the earlier post and say it is very good. I could be biased but it got me where I needed to be. No flight school flying Cessnas is going to make the transition to the airline world easy but I would say Sierra prepared me as well as possible for the airline experience.

Hope that helps.