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Pan Am International Flight Academy

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MikePalazzo

New member
Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Posts
3
Hey everyone...After reading posts about flight academys I feel reluctant to write this, but it is a decision I am seriously contemplating and I am looking for some opinions/reviews/ and guidance from some of you more experienced pilots....A little background on myself, I am 20 years old with an associates degree in history...I am private rated and will be taking my instrument checkride within the next month (Nov 15th =) Well to be honest with everyone I am seriously burnt out on academics...I plan on eventually getting my bachelors degree but right now I really wish I could spend most of my time working towars my career; flying...My aviation background has come from a Ma' and Pop' flight school at my local airport....Unfortunately I am only able to fly 2-3 (tops) times a week due to limited instructors....Personally this is not enough so I have inquired all of the flight clubs at the three closest airports that are practical for me to commute to, and unfortunately I am being told that I will be limited to 2-3 times a week due to lack of instructors....This is very dissapointing, thus why I am looking into flight academys...Upon reviewing all of the academys I think Pan Am International looks the most professional and is best suited for me...If I were to enter I am told that Its gonna cost me around 40K...I would begin with my multi rating and finish the course being CFI/CFII/and CFIME and a guranteed job flight instructing at the academy (1 year or so) until I have obtained enough TT/MT for an interview with one of their "contact" regionals...Now ive read earlier posts and I know a lot of people consider this "buying yourself a F/O seat'', but I feel in my scenario I am really limited on options...yes, I would love to keep flying out of my home airport, and do the traditional route of instructing and gaining hours, but the way things are looking thats another 2-3 maybe 4-5 years worth of time which I dont have! I dont look at going to the academy as an easy way out. Personally I feel it is a big plus for me because I can devote all of my time into my flight training to become the best pilot I can possibly be. yes it is appealing to get a F/O job in such quick time, but its more appealing to me to spend 100% of my time over the next year or so strictly devoted to aviation.....

Is there anyone out there with experience with this particular flight academy? The only knowledge I have on it is what I have been told by employees and throught their catalog so I understand a lot of it is bias. How much validity is there to what I am being told? Folks, anyone with comments, and knowledge will be extremely helpful to me...There is no way I would spend all this money and go into something without research, and trusting the posters on this web forum I will take your answers and comments with the higest respect because you sound like some of the most professional in the field....If you do not want to post on this forum and would like to talk in private I can be reached via e-mail - - [email protected] ....I'd encourage people to privately contact me if you have experience with this academy so I can fully understand the point you are getting across......

Thanks a lot guys

Respectfully,

Michael R. Palazzo
 
Save your money. Tell yourself that you are going to make a living flying. Use your money to move yourself to where the jobs are. You may go to Alaska, Africa,Guam, Hawaii and the list goes on and on. You are young and there is a really big world out there, the last thing you want to do is spend 40K to be a "gear jerker" for some commuter captain. Live life to the fullest and discover what aviation is really about .
 
I attended pan am. I personally loved it there. The price defitinilly went up. When I went there, I had my private liscense, i got all my ratings through mei it cost me around 26k at panam. I started there back in 2000 when they first opened up. I had a great expereince there. I flew 4-5 times a week, always had an instructor and the best part was everyone else there was training to be a professional pilot. So I met a lot of friends that im still in touch with now. Everyone will have bad comments about everything, and they will have good ones. I will praise Panam since my expereince there was great. it did what i wanted and when i wanted it done. My situation was just like yours, I had an associates degree, wanted to just concentrate on flying so I went there. It took me 8 months to get through all of my training, but a year is more realistic. if you have any questions, comments or need any info about the school or the area where the school is located you can email me at [email protected] or since you have aol, you can use aim and hit me at antney79 . good luck in your decision. Only real advice i can give you is wherever you go, make sure they have a good structure, and hope you get a great flight instructor. makes a world of difference.
Anthony
 
Be very careful...

There is a basic, fundamental problem with the Pan Am hiring philosophy. If you guarantee every graduate a job (and they do) and you are extremely hesitant to kick students out (and they are) it is nearly impossible to maintain a reasonable student load. I have spoken with instructors who left Pan Am because they were only able to fly 10-20hours a month! You can't pay your rent on that, much less pay off your $40k in loans. It's simple, for every class that graduates, each new CFI needs between 4-5 students to have a full load. So, for Pan Am newhire instructors to be productive, Pan Am would have to continually increase their student load. Put simply, for every student who graduates they have to get 3-5 new students. Anyway, if you want some details, feel free to PM me. It's not a bad program, but it's definitely not a guaranteed airline job. Just be careful with your money.
 

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