this is the single thing that scares me the most about trying to become a pilot.  It seems increadibly expensive.

Currently i am a senior in college and i will be graduating in august.  I am also in the Air national guard, they are paying for my college so luckily for me i will come out of school debt free.

I plan on using what is left of my GI bill towards flight training, it's not a lot but it's better than nothing and will cover some of the costs.  The rest of the money i will most likely have to take loans out for

What really scares me, is that beginning regional airline first officers dont make much money at all, i really hope i could pay back the loans i would have accumulated and if i were not to get hired by an airline, i would be out a ton of money and it would be a complete waste.  thats what really scares me.

well what about the rest of you, how do you pay for flight training? do you have any tricks for me to better afford this endevor? thanks for the help!

yea no kidding, i think i'm in the same boat as you are

hey guys, thanks a lot for the help and information i really appreciate it!

where is falcon located? do they have a website?

and i checked into the flight safety academy website and they have a program that seems very appealing thanks pilot jeff!  have you visited that campus or anything?

thanks for the help everyone

hey winky-

well i just got back from my trip to florida
i visited florida regional airline academy while i was there.  This is the only real pilot "academy" i have visited so i cannot compare it to anything else

well here are my impressions of it:

It seemed like a really nice academy.  the majority of students really seemed to like it and were happy there.  The staff seems very helpful and genuinely interested in your success (but i guess they would be with the $ you spend to go there lol)

one of the things i really liked was the professional atmosphere there.  The students all had on uniforms as well as the instructors.  I saw the classrooms for the ground schooling, and some only had about 10 chairs, so classes are small and it seems like you can get individual help if you need it.

I went up for a discovery flight in a piper warrior (their standard single engine trainer) and it seems like a great aircraft.  my instructor showed me just how stable it was and how hard you have to try to make it stall.  He even let me fly it around for a good 30mins or so.  It went really well, while in the air i also talked to him about the school.  He is a recent graduate of the school and he got his cfi there.  he isn't sure if he wants a job with a regional airline anymore so untill he decides what he wants to do he is just doing what he likes and building hours at the same time.  (he was being honest too with what he told me) he said its a good school, they teach well. the one thing he warned me about was be careful about the apartments/living arangements the school will offer for you, they will overcharge you for an apartment.  he said you are much better off to find one on your own, it will be cheaper.

right in their facility, they have a room of class 6 flight simulators (the only thing they dont do is have motion) they seemed like very nice simulators.  they have various simulators including simulators for a B-737, crj (regional jet) and i think the other was a BE1900??  they also had simulatiors for piper warriors and seminole

it seems like a really good school to go to and from what i saw i would recommend it.  

What i think i am going to do is either go through JCC and use prior aviation as my flight school and then after i have get my commercial rating with them, then go to the florida regional airline academy for their flight officer program they have
or, i might just skip JCC since i will have a 4 year degree this august and go right to prior directly for my flight training and then on to florida.

i hope this information helps you out, if you have any more questions let me know,
when you meet with the JCC program director please let me know what you thought of it, thanks!

well ive checked into prior aviation, and they seem to be the best option for localtraining, and i might go this route

i am going to visit florida regional airline academy on march 24th, ill let you know what i think of it

i also want to try to talk to some students when i am there and see what they think  (they wont lie since they arent trying to sell me something like the admissions counselor is)  they will be straight up and honest

have you talked to any local schools or anything?

hey i do believe the embrey riddle CAPT program is done, it is no longer accepting new applicants and once the current classes are done they are canceling that program

you can check into other options

doa  google.com search for
florida regional airline academy
delta connection academy
flight safety international

or just a general search for career flight schools

about the USAF, to become a pilot you have to be a commisioned officer.  to become an officer i believe you have to be a US citizen

i hope this info helps

which campus were you looking at?

im checking into many options, i think what i am probably going to end up doing is starting my training up here, maybe going all the way to commercial/CFI and then after i have completed that, going down to florida for an airline first officer transition/prep school.  

Locally there are not many options, in buffalo there is prior aviation, dunkirk aviation and a flight school in batavia, also there is 1 in rochester but that might be farther than you want to travel.

A different option is jamestown community college offers a 2 year associates degree in professional piloting.  the neat thing about the program is you dont actually have to travel to jamestown to fly, you do all of your flying at either prior or dunkirk for example.  that might be a good option because it might be easier to get financial aid etc.. since you are technically enrolled in a college
i think this it the website for jamestown community college  www.jcc.edu (im just going from memory.  search around on that site for the pilot info, or call them up and ask to speak to rick ruprecht (spelling?) anyways he is the coordinator of the problem and he gave me a lot of infor over the phone if you have any questions

after i get my commercial/cfi i believe i would have somewhere around 220 total hours, then i would transfer to a school like forida regional airline academy.  they have a 9 week program to take low time pilots with commercial rating up to the training needed to be eligiable for a first officer job interview with a regional airline.  i am going to be in florida at the end of march and while i am there i am going to try to check into the school.
i think the website for the school is www.raaflightschools.com it also seems like a decent deal, i would like to do a fast paced program the entire time, but i cant go away for a whole year/afford it because it becomes very expensive

well i hope this helps and if i think of any other info ill let you know

what type of school are yo interested in attending?  are you looking for self paced training or a regimented program? are you willing to re-locate?


OT, do you live in buffalo, ny? thats where i live, if you need any info on local flight schools i could share with you what i have found out so far, im currently looking for a school myself

hey thats cool, im in almsot the exact same situation as you are.  have you checked into the florida regional airline academy? they seem to have a good airline transition program, what do you think?

hey thanks for the info, ive been looking into all the so called "first officer factories"

the brochure about delta connection academy does look good. lol i have the same one you do, and i have the dvd that came with it.  but remember this, they are salesmen, they are trying to sell you a product (their school).  they will make it sound as good as you can imagine because when it comes down to it they want your money.

i honestly do not know how it compares to similar schools or how well it prepares you for a job.  if you want to check it out, they will fly you and a companion down to their school for a free tour then fly you home free. that sounds like a pretty decent deal if nothing else.  i am going to be in florida in march visiting family, while i am there i am thinking about visiting delta connection and florida regional airline academy as well. those seem to be 2 of the better options

try to compare as many schools as you can.  count up how much total pilot time you will have, how many multi eng. hours? etc..  what type of ratings will you have when you graduate? will you graduate with an actual aircraft rating (ie. crj type rating)?  is housing included? what is the cost of housing? what are the financing options? does the school want/allow you to be an instructor? how many cross country flight hours?

i havent done this yet, but if i am serious about investing into a school, i will talk to current students and if possible graduates too. they will tell you what the school is really like and if they think it is a good program, they wont feed you a line of BS like an admissions counselor will.

i hope this helps, if you have any info let me know too because i would be interested, its hard to find people to talk about schools like this since not many people have been through them

Hello, currently i am a considering to embark on the student pilot transition.  Currently i have 0 flight time.  I have checked into many things but i still have 1 concern.  I have poor vision.  As of right now my vision can be corrected to 20/20, but it seems every year i need a slightly stronger perscription.

My concern is, that i will invest all this money into flight training with the hopes of making a career out of it, then after i am thousands of dollars into debt, somewhere down the road i will not be able to obtain an a1c medical rating.  

what are the risks or benefits to laser corection surgery? does anyone have experience with bad vision problems? any advice would be appreciated. thanks for the help!

what is everyones opinion/past experiences on the best path to becoming a FO for a regional airline.  i have bigger goals after that, but it seems like no matter what i will need to accumulate the experience at the regionals first.

can someone please give me some insight, maybe you have already done this or whatever, but any advice would be appreciated.

I am looking into any and all options. thanks for the help.

hello all, i think i am posting this in the right place.

if i sound ignorant or anything i apologize ahead of time.  But i have done a fair amount of searching on paths to becoming an airline pilot and the more i learn the more it seems i confuse myself.  

anyways, here is my current situation, i am 22 years old and a senior in college. I will graduate with a BA in december of 06 (10months from now). I am currently in the air national guard as a jet engine mechanic and a part time job working at UPS. I also have a son and a fiancee so i would like to get working on my pilot career sooner rather than later.

as of right now i have 0 flight experience and want to go from 0 flight experience to regional airline interviews

It seems there are a couple of different routes to take to becomng a regional airline pilot. I am doing research on various flight academies, the CAPT program at ERAU, florida regional airline academy, delta connection academy etc..

there is also a local community college that offers a 2 year AS in aviation. this program would cover my flight experience to my CFI rating and i believe about 220hrs. (most of the academic classes would already be satisfied through transcript transfer from my 4 year degree)

i was considering doing all of my training at a structured academy, but am also considering doing the flight program at the local community college and then going to a school like florida regional airline academy for their airline transistion program

i thank you in advance for any advice you have because i would be interested to hear it espically from people in the business who have been down this road before! thanks for the help!

Adam

thanks for the quick welcome! I'm sure i will have a lot of questions, it seems the more i research becoming a pilot the more i end up confusing myself