SWA to lower mins?

[hypersonic]

College may not help you become a better pilot but it may help you get a better flying job. Technical writting, for example, teaches you how to write better resumes, cover letters and recommendations. Management class helps you understand corporate culture of your present or future employer that in return helps you make a decision to work there. Not all the college classes are useful but most of them are, at least for me.

 

[Old School]

How much has the type been costing guys? I see 5k in the ads but I hear it's closer to 9k if you want food and lodging. How many days/nights does the course take? Do all the 737 variants have the same type rating?

 

[Scrapdog]

College may not help you become a better pilot but it may help you get a better flying job. Technical writting, for example, teaches you how to write better resumes, cover letters and recommendations. Management class helps you understand corporate culture of your present or future employer that in return helps you make a decision to work there. Not all the college classes are useful but most of them are, at least for me.

A 4 year college degree is very important, both in this profession and out of it. I've gone round and round with pilotyip so I'll spare my diatribe and keep it short (unlike him). Pilotyip loves to think inside the box, inside his little world of minutia. Let's think outside the box for a second - what would happen if you were to be injured on the job or lose your medical? Then you're up sh*t creek without a paddle with no 4 year degree. You might as well think about washing dishes the rest of your life because you can't even come close to competing with today's bright 4 year grads. Thinking outside the box - hey, college helped me with that. And not to mention all the good things above that hypersonic has already metioned that college helps with as well.

Last but not least pilotyip - as far as flying in the military (both fighters and heavies), a college degree is extremely important. You couldn't be further from the truth. Having a 4 year degree has taught me a lot about thinking on my toes in dynamic situations, which happens all the time on complex air to air or air to ground sorties. Fellas - for god's sakes, get your degree and better your life. You'll be a better person and a better pilot all around.

 

[hypersonic]

Old School,
It is 8 days course, 5k + (travel, hotel and food) and it's the same type. I heard that the 5k price is only for the next three months.

 

[pilotyip]

Fall back value of degree overrated

Scrapdog, you flew in the USAF, you had to have college degree to be an officer, which is the only way to be a pilot in the USAF. In the past when college grads could not fill the military pilot ranks, the degree was waived to get qualified pilots. Guess what they did a great job. As I have said before I have nothing against a college degree, but it is not necessary to succeed in this business. The fallback value of a degree is greatly over rated. I have a BS and a Master's in Management, but at age 53, when Zantop pretented to go out of business to get consessions from the Teamsters, I was making $250/wk loading cargo. The value of an unused degree is highly over rated. 53-year-old unemployed airline pilots are not eagerly greeted in any industry that I know of, even of having a couple degrees. Of course, I did not apply for many of the "College degree preferred jobs" such as apt manager, telephone direct sales, and plumbing floor manager at Home Depot, etc. If you get a college degree you have to use the knowledge gained in college in order to develop a career or the degree is useless. After getting a degree, flying an airplane is not a knowledge expanding experience; it is skill development experience. Anyone care to chime in and share their experiences on entering the non-aviation job market after being out of college 20-30 years?

 

[pilotyip]

I find the college degrees only crowd here, a bit arrogant, a smacking of if you do not have a degree you are not as good as me. I know too many people who are successful and fine men who do not have a degree, I know many people with degrees who will never make any impact upon anything. I know too many pilots without degrees who I consider some of the most successful people I know I admire them and the lives they have built.

 

[Scrapdog]

IT DOES NOT matter what your degree is in...it could be in basketweaving or astronautical engineering. Going through the process to get that degree helps expand your intellect and your cognitive abilities. There are so many traits that you form getting your degree that helps you in aviation. Does biology help you throw the gear? Of course not - but the process of getting that degree helps you better think outside the box, there is no doubt about it...not to mention a better communicator which is huge in today's dog eat dog world of the majors competing with each other.

And as usual yip - you totally ignored my big point - what happens when things aren't 100% and you unfortunately lose that medical? You did that once before as well - that is where you have absolutely no retort whatsoever, and you know it.

If the military was doing so well with non-college grads flying airplanes, why'd they change it? It would have been cheaper right? In 1942 it was a P-51 vs. a ME-109 and who could spot the enemy first was usually the victor (i.e. the 20/20 vision requirement with no waivers). In today's world it's 20/70 waiverable up to 20/200. But now it's 8 F-15's, 8 F-16's, 2 F-117's, 2 B-52's, etc...on a large force employment strike mission. Most of the jets are supersonic with 20 mile closure rates and the hostiles are going to manuever in order to survive. College degree help here - your damn straight. Obviously they wanted college educated flyers for a reason.

And no, I don't think I'm better than a non-college flyer. Many are talented as you said. But having the ability to grasp elements in aviation when things don't go as planned or other dynamic situations - you bet that process of getting the college degree helps beyond comprehension.

 

[pilotyip]

"And as usual yip - you totally ignored my big point - what happens when things aren't 100% and you unfortunately lose that medical? You did that once before as well - that is where you have absolutely no retort whatsoever, and you know it." Did not ignore it, I just said my degrees did nothing for my employability (word?) when I was looking for a job outside of aviation at age 53. Lets agree to disagree, it is so American.