Utah Flight Schools ? Pilots advice ? Please look..... :)

I know a few that have gone to ATP and they are what they advertise... not a bad thing or a good thing. but go for it the regionals are heiring with low minimums

 

Hi there,

I thought I might share my perspective as a commercial airline (737) pilot. I worked my way up with no military background. I would suggest you stay away from any of the high priced (JetU, Embry Riddle, etc). Other pilots will argue with me on this point, but the reality of it is that none of the airlines where you will get your first airline job will care where you got your training. They only care that you have the required certificates, that you meet their minimum experience requirements, and that you can pass their training. You will be working for very little money (roughly 20k per year) when you start flying for the airlines and you don't want to have the huge debt from flying at the big name school/flying the modern airplane with all the gee whiz electronics hanging over you. You have to be strong about this, because the big name schools with the nice shiny new equipment will try to sell you on the idea that their training will put you in a better place professionally or that you need to have lots of experience with the most modern equipment (EFIS, GPS, etc) to be competitive when the truth is you will be a better pilot if you learn on the most basic equipment. All that electronic stuff just makes things easier, which is nice, but when you're learning, it's easy to turn that stuff into a crutch.

A recent marketing gimmick (Almost a scam in my book) is the schools that will guarantee you a job/interview with an airline that they have an agreement with if you go to school there. The airlines hire people when they need them and don't when they don't. It's as simple and as complicated as that. If the airlines aren't hiring, you might get your obligatory interview without a serious chance of being hired. There are a lot of scams out there and plenty of schools willing to sweet talk you into parting with your hard earned/borrowed money so watch out.

I have followed the pilot forums for several years and have met pilots from all different backgrounds/schools/parts of the country and I have heard mixed things about ATP, but I think out of the places you listed, it is probably your best bet. I have never trained there, but have heard many comments both ways. One thing I can tell you is that if you do all of your training there, they are very likely to hire you as a flight instructor. This is far different than the schools that are promising you an airline job because you are actually pretty likely to get something out of the deal. I can also tell you they do a large volume of multi-engine training and you will see that at some point in your career that those first few hundred hours of multi-engine experience are the most expensive and the hardest to get so getting hired as an instructor at a place with a large multi-engine fleet is kind of important.

The moral is, get your ratings in the cheapest way and flying the cheapest equipment you can and you will be much happier as a poor regional First Officer because you won't have the huge debt payments to make like all your friends that got sweet talked into the high priced ab initio, JetU, or CRJ transition course. They're really not necessary and any airline that is going to hire you has to train you anyway. Once you finish your basic ratings, work hard at developing good instrument skills as that is what will carry you through airline training (along with good study habits).

I went essentially this route, avoiding the high priced schools, because I have family in the business that steered me away from all the BS out there and I hope to help the new guys separate the wheat from the chaff. Have fun with the training and fly safe

 

Brandman,

Have you looked at UVU? Its just down the road and they have a good up and coming program. If you don't have a license it may be a good place to start that is close to home. You can get a degree in aviation (if you don't already have a degree) and work on your flight stuff at the same time.

 

As someone who went through pretty much the exact thing you are going through about 5 years ago heres my opinion.
OSUAV8R has some very very valid points and quite frankly i have to agree with him in the fact that high money doesnt allways mean high quality. I attended the University of North Dakota and am now flight instructor for UND. Also his point that you need to learn to fly old school steam gauges, unless you jump in to a CRJ right off the bat chances are you will be flying steam gauge (SAAB 340, DC9, Dash 8 etc etc) and it is far far easier to transition from steam to glass vs the other way around. I also have to agree to some extent with his comment on the guaranty of an interview, however if you do go to a bigger school the airlines will come there to hire people when they need poeple simply because of the reputation.
What ever you decide make sure that it is infact what you want to do because I know of way too many people who go through the program and realize you know what i dont want to do this and then they are stuck with the student loans (bad situation). If you are like me though you wouldnt have it any other way. Also I dont want to sound like a buzz kill but when you sign up for a line of work such as this you have to realize that there is an element of danger that does come with the territory (that is relatively small but still there), In the past 2 years I have lost 4 freinds to crashes and it has really made me think about it but in the end it did little to deter me.

Fly safe and Enjoy it!