Happy to have found this thread, and great to hear that Kimberly, at 39, is starting fresh in this career. I’m 40 and looking at starting back at it. I received my PPL nearly 18 years ago! Oh man, I wish I would have kept going… but that’s a whole other story. My question comes about choosing between two schools. It sounds like ATP is hands down a great choice and I am fortunate that there are two schools to choose from here in San Diego, CA. However, I have looked into Epic Flight Academy out of Florida and they, too, seem to have a great program with a guaranteed job with Ameriflight at 1200 hours. There are some other great incentives, like Ameriflight’s $60K tuition reimbursement, that also makes this attractive but I am interested in knowing more about training under Part 135 (Epic) and how it may, or may not, limit my options in my future when it comes to applying for the majors. I’ve gotten conflicting information in other forums about it and would love your take on it.
There’s no question the pilot shortage is in full swing and EVERY flight school in the country now has “Career” and “Professional” programs and has developed relationships with this airline and that airline. If you look at the top of this forum it clearly says ATP and all the mentors are successful graduates who’ve gone on to become airline pilots. None of us are salesman and frankly I’m not here to pick apart other flight schools. There are in fact some great programs out there and I always encourage people to do their own research and make their own informed decision. That said I took a quit look over at Epic’s site and a few things caught my attention.
First off (and admittedly this is a personal peeve of mine), what’s with the uniforms? Epaulets are something you earn when you actually get hired by an airline, not when you pay tuition to a flight school. Ok now that’s out of the way there’s tons of pictures of people who successfully completed their training but where are their airline placements? I didn’t see one? ATP had over 300 pilots HIRED BY AIRLINES in the last 12mos and has been doing so for over 30yrs. I see they don’t have many aircraft and they don’t state how many instructors they have but let’s ASSUME (for argument sake) they have enough to accommodate their students and their training is awesome. Here’s my biggest issue, guaranteed job with Ameriflight? Michael EVERY Regional airline in the US is fighting over bodies. While in the past I would ALWAYS say there are no guarantees in aviation the fact is IF you successfully complete your training and build you time you will have your choice of airlines to fly for. So with that in mind my question is why would you want to fly for Ameriflight (and be locked into a 3yr contract with them if you want that $60 tuition reimbursement) flying turbo-props when you could be flying some REALLY nice REAL jets across the US, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean, staying in nice hotels, not flying back side of the clock, and receiving bonuses, Tuition reimbursement and higher salaries (which will more than cover their $60k)? Oh and btw many have flow-thrus with airlines like United, American and Delta vs Allegiant and Omni? Further you’re absolutely correct regarding your concern flying Part 135. Let’s say you’re Delta (or even UPS they mention). Would you hire a 5,000hr pilot who’s been flying short hops in a turbo-prop delivering light cargo OR the 5,000hr Regional Capt who’s been working for your support airline as an AIRLINE PILOT and knows the system and has demonstrated their ability to operate in that system? That’s why Epic says “after 5yrs you could be at a Major like Omni, Frontier and Allegiant” and not Delta, United or American. Now don’t misunderstand, I have friends at those 3 airlines and I’m not putting them down but they are not Major airlines (just compare pay, route structures and equipment).
Michael as I said I encourage people to research but even if the training was equal to ATPs (which I don’t believe it is and why ATP has agreements with virtually EVERY Regional in the country including Ameriflight but also SkyWest, Envoy, ExpressJet, Compass, etc vs their one) this is no great deal. At 40 time is a factor and you want (need) to chose your steps carefully.