Need advice on paying the big academies

[Kream926]

I'm already going to college and will have my degree by june. I need advice on academy not FBO since I already made up my mind that training will be done at an academy.

ok good, spend an extra 60% on your training at an "academy".

 

[Kream926]

And we are all telling you that you should not train at an academy. Most FBOs have loan programs now with Sallie Mae. I can even recommend you to these FBOs. You will be supporting all that is wrong with this industry by going to a pilot mill and you will not get well rounded training.

ill have to back up the russian on that one. i work at an "FBO" along with about 15 other CFI's and every single one of us provides top notch instruction

 

[Way2Broke]

Story of my life. I finally say something smart and someone else gets the credit. One more thing, I don't know why everyone calls them FBOs, when they are really Flight Schools in most cases. They just happen to rent office space from an FBO or the Airport Authority, just like the single minded pilot mills. I'm starting to think this must be flame bait.

 

[CX880]

I don't know why everyone calls them FBOs, when they are really Flight Schools in most cases. They just happen to rent office space from an FBO or the Airport Authority, just like the single minded pilot mills. I'm starting to think this must be flame bait.

FBOs are not necessarly flight schools because any rich guy can rent 3 planes at an fbo for one week and leaving the students with thumbs up their asses, while the "pilot mills" have planes for students only. FBos are ac rentals for anybody that has money, they don't give a SH&% about the students.

It happened a lot, I would show up and the lady that ran the place would say, while half laughing, sorry those planes are gone because some guy wanted to take them for half a month. In my mind I was saying "you Fu&^$ bi&% what bout the people that are spending thousands of dollars and staying loyal to this flight school, the guys is more important than us?"

 

[mpflies2]

Hi, I'm a private pilot with about 70 hours flight time, about to finish college looking to go to the airlines. When I started flight training I had no plan about what I would do after earning my PPL. Figured I'd know by the time I completed the ppl. Now I'm completely blank. I have no more money, the bastards at the flight school gave me a quote for around 5000k I ended up paying way more even after the low time it took me to pass the check ride. Parents payed 5000/year tuition for the state college and half for the PPL. I have an online business that gives me enough to cover 3 hours of rental per week.

At this rate, it's apparent that I'm going to have to take a loan to cover training at ATP. Can anybody give me advice on what to do, better ideas? How did you pay off the loan? Do students at these academies work an train at the same time or is it a full-time training? I don't want to go into debt especially since I'll be making about 1000 per month as an academy instructor and not much better as a F/O. I know some say stay at an FBO, it's cheaper but after what I went through at my FBO, like flying with half broken planes. Unless I'll be instrctuing, I'll never go through an Fbo to train again.

Ok, I've done the Part 61 FBO, I've done the part 141 College, and I'm now trying the Part 141 "pilot mill"

In the 61 world, things can be done cheaper and just as quick. This depends on your instructor. Me personally, having to pay it out of pocket each flight made it difficult to get anything done. I had to repeat lessons so many times. By the time I was done I had 40 hours and not even to the cross country phase....I got screwed on that deal. Plus my instructor never gave me solo endorsements. This is just my example....not saying this is what you'll get at all FBO's.

I then went to college, which offered an aviation degree and flight training. I feel like it was similar to a 61 environment at the airport except you had to be a Averett University student to fly the planes. It took 3 and a half years to get my Private, Instrument, Commercial Single, and Multi Commercial Instrument...... At a pilot mill you will get those in a year or so. I feel like the training was spaced well, without excessive waste of money on repeating lessons....plus I worked two part time jobs and was a full time student with credit hours ranging from 17 -22 per semester.

Now that I have graduated I have been flying for 5 years and still am not getting paid to do it. So I opted for the "pilot mill", flight safety academy.
I have alot of good things to say about this program.

1....it is very expensive, and would not necessarily recommend doing all your training here because it will cost you a fortune

2.....My CFI yes is a bit more expensive than other places, but I feel like the training I'm receiving here is some of the best I've gotten.

3....This program is very well rounded to a degree....however, I have noticed that people who did all there training here have no concept of what flying elsewhere is like.

4....I feel the combination of all the training I've had has made me a very well rounded pilot. I've done many types of flying, and met many people along the way.

I definetly recommend checking all your options including other FBO's, but don't be so set on an academy just yet....theres alot of good choices out there.

As far as paying loans....I came from a family of 4 with a total income under 50k. I didn't get many scholarships, and I did go to a Private college. As you can imagine I'm in dept up to my ears.

I'm doing my best to get this rating done and start making some money. I plan on living off the bare essentials for the next few years so I can try to knock out a good amount of this debt.

Oh and as for working during training at a full time academy like flight safety.....alot of people do it. Only reason I didn't is because CFI is a challenging rating and I wanted to concentrate as much as possible on it to get it done and make sure I have plenty of time to devote to it.


Marc

 

[Slice121]

FBOs are not necessarly flight schools because any rich guy can rent 3 planes at an fbo for one week and leaving the students with thumbs up their asses, while the "pilot mills" have planes for students only. FBos are ac rentals for anybody that has money, they don't give a SH&% about the students.

It happened a lot, I would show up and the lady that ran the place would say, while half laughing, sorry those planes are gone because some guy wanted to take them for half a month. In my mind I was saying "you Fu&^$ bi&% what bout the people that are spending thousands of dollars and staying loyal to this flight school, the guys is more important than us?"

You seem to have all the answers. So why are you asking us anything if your mind is made up? www.prairieairservice.com It worked well for me that's all I can tell ya.

 

[CX880]

My question is how do I go about paying for these expensive schools? Can anybody that has gone through these schools give me any tips?

 

[Peter Brady]

My question is how do I go about paying for these expensive schools? Can anybody that has gone through these schools give me any tips?

If you enroll in one of these expensive flight academies, they will have a finance department that will be more than happy to help you out with the loan process, paperwork, etc. They will usually refer you to someone like Sallie Mae for your student loans. Expect them to recommend you getting that largest loan possible, that way you won't have to worry about how much money you have left in your account. Its a sales tactic. I used to instruct at a big name flight academy years ago and I heard this a lot from my students.

Realize these big flight academies are going to make you pay for additional stuff you don't need such as big simulator time, CRM training, uniforms, etc, etc, etc.

It sounds like your local FBO isn't the greatest based on what you have stated so far. I would recommend trying another FBO rather than spending $80-$100k for a flight academy.