MAPD v. Gulfstream
mcjohn said:
If I went to MAPD I would go in with commercial single engine. I would have to get my multi training there. Do you think having recieved PPL and Instrument rating in southeast over a couple years would have an effect on hireability out of PACE type program? Why would you consider the ab-initio approach so much more successful. Don't forget to answer.
You would be wasting your money by obtaining your CSEL, or even your Private, before going to MAPD's
ab initio program. The place will still make you take its Private course. Aside from having to unlearn whatever procedures you learned to receive MAPD standardization, why pay twice?
The
ab initio program is better because you start with zero time and with no preconceived notions about flying and procedures and learn the airline way of flying from the beginning. Foreign airlines that train their own pilots train them
ab initio their way. In other words, the only aviation these pilots know is what their company taught them.
In MAPD's case, students who may have never been in an airplane before are trained in Bonanzas from the first day in Mesa line procedures. They learn about constant-speed props and retractable gear from the first day. Operating these items becomes second nature to them because they knew nothing different. Compare to being trained in simple, fixed-gear singles.
Another reason why Mesa's
ab initio training is so effective is because the Beech Bonanza and Baron layouts are similar, which are similar still to the Beech 1900s. (Orignally, the first airplane to which Mesa new-hires were assigned was the 1900; some go to jets now.) There is a real building-block training concept at MAPD, though I understand that instead of MAPD students getting ten hours in the 1900 they now get time in a CRJ or ERJ sim.
I don't have a problem with GIA or MAPD. I know it's best to instruct but that shouldn't be the only way. Even if it is the best and most traditional way, the military never used that standard.
You
need to have a problem with Gulfstream. Gulfstream is pay-for-training, and everything that pay-for-training implies. We discussed that last week.
In contrast, MAPD's 141
ab initio program is not P-F-T. I instructed there. It is a flight school, but geared, of course, to Mesa Airlines. The only thing about MAPD that is a given is you will earn your initial ratings and a degree from San Juan College. In contrast to P-F-T, where one gives money to an
employer in exchange for a
job, at MAPD you are paying for flight training, only.
PACE is pay-for-interview, which is tantamount to P-F-T. Further,
DX Rick said:
do your research on
www.mesalounge.com
Sounds like quite a few guys who go through the PACE program, get dumped in the streets.
What a surprise.
Isn't that what some of us have been saying about pay-for-interview?? Your odds are better with betting the same money in Laughlin.
Finally, while Mesa Airlines may suck as a company, the experience you get there is recognized everywhere. No one says you have to make Mesa your career. It's a means to an end. I don't remember the poster's name, but the wife of an MAPD grad wrote several months ago how her husband went through the program, got on with Mesa, upgraded to Captain, and eventually got on with his goal airline, Alaska Airlines. I once heard that AW has hired a lot of Mesa pilots.
