PM between LOGANSUN and SHYFLYGUY about DCA
Just thought I'd share these pearls with everyone contemplating DCA. If nothing else, it might be interesting.
logansun said:
So SupaFly, what did you think of DCA? Did it benefit you? meet your expectations? would you have done it differently? I think your the first person that has emailed saying they actually went through the academy. Appreciate your feed back. logan
Hey, no problem. If I had it to do over, yes, I would do it... but I'd also do a few things differently.
One, get your private first (elsewhere). FBO: $3500 | DCA: $7000.
Two, move in to the cheapest apartment you can and get to know your neighbors. I'm white, and I moved in to a black neighborhood (1505 W. 25th Street apartments: 800 sq ft 2 br. apt for $450/mo). This motivates you to spend as much time as possible at DCA, studying, working, teaching, whatever. Getting to know the neighbors will cover your ass. They had my back, no matter what. I loved the ghetto and I would HIGHLY recomend those folks. I got my truck stolen once, but they drove it a few blocks and parked it. No harm, no foul. They had barbeques and it was AWESOME.
Three, backseat, as I said before. Backseat everything! It raises Va (maneuvering speed) and makes the airplane feel more stable with the added weight.
Four, get your CSEL at the FBO again (2 hours in a C-172 plus the checkride: $150 | DCA: $1500. The way DCA structures it, you go from the 172 to the 172RG for a stage check (which is essentially your CSEL) but then move you to the seminole for your PMEL and CMEL. Backseat the ever loving **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** out of that thing and chairfly it. Go to a plane in MX or on the line and go through your maneuvers until you're sick of it. Then do it some more. That alone could save you a couple grand. It really isn't a big deal. None of it is. You bust a ride, it's no biggie. The only ones that count with the FAA is the CMEL... I can't remember what the other one is, but I think there are only two.
Five, get in good with your CFI who is teaching your CFI. If you buddy up with the other two or three people in your group, you can all pitch in $5 or $10 an hour and do the lessons at your hous and save another couple grand each. (DCA charges each person the going rate, at the time it was $30/hr for the CFI and gave the instructor $7/hr. DCA made $83-113, depending on how many were in the group.) My instructor, Gerry Olmeda and his brother Angel Olmeda (both now at Eagle in San Juan) only let us buy him lunch or dinner. My most fond memories were of my CFI group. It was me (Fancy Pant's little brother), Zubie (now a Capt. at Pinnacle), and Lindsay G. (A Capt. at Comair). We would put together our breifings the night before, have class in the morning, work with Gerry for lunch, each one fly with him for two hours, then go party on Church Street/Orange Ave all night (Friday nights) with each other. Again, fondest memories there.
Six, buy all your books on Half.com or Amazon.com. The bookstore was a bit on the steep side, yet painfully convient. Resist. You will save several hundred to a bit over a thou if you DON'T shop there.
I'm trying to think of anything else, but I can't. Shop at Aldi's. I don't think they had them down there back then, but they do now. A box of cereal is $1, where it's like $4 in the other stores. Have fun, collect all the notes and cheat sheets you can and KEEP THEM! I handed all mine down to my big brother as he went through and I've been kicking my a$$ ever since.
Hope this helps you out. I'm going to post it on the thread you started about DCA for anyone else who might be thinking of any 141 school and for other DCA vets to add to if they have anything.
Shy
