Top Schools

[woody]

For what its worth, my humble opinion on this subject is that any 2 or 4yr degree is an asset. Period! It really doesnt matter whether or not its from ERAU or Fudpucker JuCo. Furthermore I feel that Aviation oriented degrees dont always pigeon-hole people in the event of loss of job, medical, or whatever. Anybody worth his salt will find something that suits his or her needs in the event of a unforseen career ending event. (Most pilots I know are some of the most employable people I have ever met. I base this opinion on summer internships at General Motors working on the factory floor, as well as throwing bags at NWA to supplement my income while attending ERAU and then Western Michigan.) Any education is great, get the best one that you can afford! But keep in mind this job isnt really as hard as we let others think that it is. I've flown with guys that got their ratings at some of the worst pilot mills that you can imagine and fly circles around ERAU,FSI,and WMU grads(especially those hetro challenged flight team guys!! geesh what a joke that self absorbed crap is!!) Quality people usually rise to the top and some are hired at majors with degrees in animal husbandry and womens studies with nothing more than local FBO training. Its the person that you develop in to, and the choices you make while you get the boxes checked on your NWA application that really count.
My two cents. Woody

 

[bobbysamd]

Education

"av8instyle's" Point 3 is really well taken. People indeed forget that one can do so much more with an Aeronautical Science degree than just bore holes in the sky. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the aviation v. non-aviation degree debate that we lose sight of the big picture. Everyone wants to have a Plan B. Well, just having a degree from an accredited college is your Plan B.

I once heard that sometimes Aeronautical Science majors have an easier time getting jobs outside of aviation than inside aviation. Think about it. There is some extremely valuable learning obtained from the course. Along with aviation-type courses, AS majors at Riddle were required to take physics, math and, my real favorite, Technical Writing. Consider what you can do with that training. In aviation, write manuals and training pieces. In industry, write descriptive pieces on machinery so that Joe 4th grader can understand it. Just a couple of examples.

I like an Aeronautical Science degree. If I had it to do all over, I would have earned a second B.S. in Aero Science. Once again, the important point is to earn a degree, in something.

 

[kintz]

Embry-Riddle is hands down the best of the best. The rigorous academic program along with the numerous internships and direct-hire programs are what makes it numero uno. UND may have a good program, but they don't even come close to ERAU.

If you think those three things propel ERAU ahead, you should research the other programs a little more. BFD.

 

[kintz]

How can you guys possibly equate the best flight training and college education to who wins that silly little flying competition? I have a former student at UND and according to him, all of the guys on that flight team get made fun of. Sounds to me like they were the little guys that got beat up all the time on the playground.

It's not quite that bad, but that's somewhat close. Too much of the wrong kind of time on their hands, IMO. When the coach says you shouldn't join if you care about your GPA, that's when it's time to run, if you ask me.

 

[kintz]

Re: compitition

last year nsu's flight team went to grand forks, nd for the national flight team meet, it seems to me it was a place for und to flaunt their 60 billion planes, but thats just me. the safecon meets are the "best" pilots for every university with a flight program, they have ground events(i.e. who can work the almighty E6b the quickest, aircraft id, scan which is the far-aim test) and flying events(such as the"bomb drop and precision landing).

It's more like 100 planes, but who's counting. Maybe it's different at your institution, but in my neck of the woods, the best pilots aren't on the team...necessarily. The people on the team try out, they aren't selected. I know terrific pilots who don't even bother to try out.

 

[Fr8Dog]

WOW you guys are really going at it in here, so what the hell I guess I might as well put in my $.02. First I am not trying to offend anyone in here, but I am sure I am going to so here it goes. Now I might not be against some of the big aviation schools if I had went to one of them and become such a dorky pilot like most people I have met from those schools. I have a real good friend who goes to an aviation school in Minnesota and sure she is learning how to fly for the airlines and all that **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**, but in my mind she in not really learning how to FLY. By learning to FLY I mean doing it as more then a career, and having fun with it. Not whipping out performance charts or your E6B whenever you go to fly, or worrying about being 500' agl at all times and entering the traffic pattern just the right way.

Its also great when you come back from doing a long X/C and you tell your instructor you accidentally flew into the clouds and had to get an ASR approach to land when you don't even have your instrument ticket yet. Then you tell your instructor about this and what you learned from it, and he then tells the head of the flight department who says you can do your training there, but you will not be allowed to take a checkride there or take an airplane by yourself and you will get all F's for your aviation courses that semester. That is the type of place I would want to learn to fly at. NOT!!!!

Oh yeah why wouldn't anyone not want to pay student loans for the rest of their life??? Oh but I guess most of your parents pay for you school so you don't have to worry about that.

I guess I will never know what it is like though since I really learned how to FLY without the big name school behind me. I got started flying an Aeronca Champ out of a 900' strip in August with trees on one end and power lines on the other. I also love the fact that I have $000.00 left to pay of my flight training!! Now I know I don't have my degree yet, but I sure can't beat making money flying now, saving for the future, and starting school online this spring to get my degree and then having no student loans to pay back either.

Now I know this is totally subjective since this is how I got my training so sorry if I pissed anyone off here, well not really but I just thought I would try and be nice. Ok when I read this later I am also sure none of this is going to make any sense to me so I will just pour myself another Bourbon and Coke. See ya'll later.

 

[hot section]

ERAU Sucks!

ERAU Sucks! Reasons to follow shortly. Has anyone here even heard of a school called Florida Tech? I haven't seen that school mentioned at all. Florida Tech offers multiple degrees in the field of aviation, some will prepare you for a career outside of flying, but well inside the field of aviation. ERAU doesn't have any kind of a course offering that truly prepares its students for the possibility of medical disqualification. I researched it's cirriculums as well as other school's and found F.I.T. to have the best respect in the industry outside of flying. ERAU has been around the longest as a flight training school and therefore is the most well-known. Unfortunately the quality of the pilot that comes out of there isn't what it used to be. Secondly, ERAU focuses solely on aviation. F.I.T. has other fields such as marine biology, engineering, and oceanography. This forces people to be exposed to all sorts of information... the stuff that truly rounds out an individual. The flight program at F.I.T. isn't sub-par, and it's fleet (comprised of 98% piper training acft.) is either new or refurbed. All I can say is that there is more to aviation and life than just flying. Who builds the runways for all of you to land on? The airports? the Aprons? The H.S.taxiways? Who brings you the pax? People from schools like F.I.T do all of that. I know of people from ERAU who are out there doing the consulting scene, however, the job that they got would have gone to an F.I.T. grad before it would go to and ERAU grad solely based upon the training that would be required for the ERAU grad to get caught up. I'm glad I went to F.I.T.... as though you couldn't tell. I've had job offers from Birk-Hillman, HNTB, and a few others. Too bad I'm a pilot and want to struggle with that route now vs. going with a secure job planning airport designs.

 

[bobbysamd]

F.I.T.

You forgot to mention that MLB, where F.I.T.'s flight line is based, is a nice airport and Valkaria is an okay touch-and-go field.

Don't forgot the proximity to Titusville as another field, and to the Kennedy Space Center for watching Shuttle launches live.

Seriously, F.I.T. is an excellent school, with nice aircraft and a nice flight line.

 

[woody]

Chill out Hotsection!! sounds like you have a bad case of "Riddle Envy" Im sure that FIT is a fine school and that you received a wonderful education there, but ERAU is a fine school as well. It seems to me that the last time I was at NATCO that ERAU was the only school that Northwest had a full-time represenative from.(I may be wrong though) That tells me that Riddle must be doing something right.
Woody

 

[kilomike]

As an ERAU graduate, I will comment that I did not regret for one moment my academic training there. For the original poster, I attended ERAU but took flight training at a nearby Part 61 flight school. This allowed me the choice of flight instructors at the flight school vs. assigned instructors at ERAU. I was fortunate to have an ex-Air Force pilot as a flight instructor and enjoyed my training at the school while taking academic courses at ERAU. I am sure that this option would be available at other schools like FIT or UND where the student takes academic courses only while taking flight training at a local FBO. It saved me and my family a sizable sum to train this way and I am glad to have had this opportunity. I'd say that the best school for any individual is based on what that individual's needs are. Different schools are good in their own way.

As for the flight team, I cannot believe the teams have gone to the extreme that they have with the formation taxiing!! When I was at ERAU, it was much simpler and I enjoyed my behind-the-scenes role on the team. As a CFI in my senior year I could not compete but I helped behind the scenes. When I was a junior, I was practicing for the simulator competition. Partway through the fall semester, I'd passed my IFR checkride and fell ill when I came home from the exam. I was sick for six weeks and was unable to compete. I went in the late 1980s and I do not recall any such formation taxiing and would have been embarrassed to be a member of the team if I'd seen that. As it was I was interested in simulator competition which did not involve any such shenanigans. Since I was behind the scenes, I only wore the flight suit once, for the team picture. I can't believe the flight teams have deteriorated to this level of verbally attacking competitors from opposing schools and the displays that I am reading about. I'm so embarrassed by this. Shame that they cannot realize that the simpler the better.

Kilomike

 

[CRJ_Driver]

UND Baby!

KISS: Keep it simple.

Read the new issue of FLYING MAG and you'll come across an article about UND!

- I wouldn't grade a school by its flying team. In fact, Riddle has a better flying team program...but who wins every year?! The team is just a group of people that work hard to win...it doesn't necessarily measure a school.

- Cost. UND vs. Riddle. UND wins hands down. PLUS you'll walk away with Instructor certificates...assuming you can earn them!

- Liberal Arts Education: UND. You can obtain a business degree, but still obtain the same (almost) aviation education.

- Location. YIKES! Well, Daytona does sound better than GFK, but the cold builds character. Besides when you're preflighting as an FO somewhere...you won't even need to bring your trenchcoat.


From what I've seen...if you want to fly for a reputable scheduled organization...or close to scheduled....go to a UAA (Univ. Avit. Assoc.) school. UND or Riddle. You can't beat it.

You can and you will get a great flight education elsewhere too! You just have to be more careful! I don't mean to affend anyone..but let's get serious.


I take offense to an above comment on aviation degrees being worthless. While a business degree would be better...what do you want to do with your life?! My answer was being the best **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** aviator I could be and that meant an aviation degree.

You can always take core classes to qualify for and earn an MBA via the internet.

Let's also face the facts people, that a college degree gets you a job. But if you majored in management..you will not earn a CPA's job etc......

I don't really know why I'm going on and on...but the key is do what you think is best and kick butt.

I just wanted you to read the Flying Mag article about UND.

Later!

 

[jaybird]

N9103M and hot section

N9103M, I find your story very hard to believe. When did this take place? I was in the ASA bridge program untill it got cancelled a week before graduation. You could interview with just a commercial certificate, but you needed 50me to get hired. You also had training in the seminole with an HSI and the B1900 sim with HSI. Don't believe everything you hear.


hot section, you just dont know what you're talking about. There are plenty of other degrees to chooses from at ERAU.

 

[aero99]

This is nearly as bad as the Ford / Chevy debate.

I had to laugh about the formation taxi though....that was a new one on me.

 

[Wiggums]

N9103M - I find that story very hard to believe. Those guys must have been lying, I can't believe someone went through ERAU doesn't know how to use a HSI.

Also, I think ERAU is a pretty good school. I just wouldn't go because of cost and other things mentioned above. Mostly though, I'm just picking on some of the students, especically flight team members.

 

[othello]

Here's a great little school I haven't heard anyone mention. Big Bend CC in Moses Lake, WA. Their pilots share the 14000+' runway with the 747 pilots trainees of JAL. Very good school if you can get in. Last I heard there was a two-year waiting list. They only take 80 pilots each year. If your goal is to be a professional pilot you cannot go wrong. Every single person that was in my class is currently either at a regional, major, corporate jet or military jets. It is also fairly inexpensive. I went from 0 time to CFII/MEI for under 18k. The senior instructors there are excellent. Several retired military guys. Not like these airline washouts you will find at UND.

PS
In my 1100+ hours as a CFI in the Seattle area the worst commercial pilot I ever instructed was a graduate of the Purdue flight program. He was the only pilot I have ever flown with from Purdue but he graduated from there and was flat out BAD.