CX880 said:
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
