Hi there!
I have been reading on here for a few weeks and have decided to finally ask my list of questions. I am looking at enrolling into the Airline Career Pilot Program and currently have zero time. I have talked with admissions at this point and I am hoping to schedule a tour in the next two weeks. My questions right now are specifically with the Envoy program and flowing through to American. I know that there is now a cadet program as of June 2018 but I am curious as to how many have taken this path and how successful they have been as well as how the time frame has panned out. I know they list an estimate of 5 years to flow through and this would be too soon to have that already occur since the new partnership. I have been reading reviews from Envoy employees and they seem to have a fair amount of negative feed back from what I am reading. Can anyone shed some light here or positive experiences? This program initially caught my eye because of the benefits they offer as you are instructing and based on admissions I know that is something you can not get from instructing with ATP alone. TIA!
Kate,
Welcome to the forum. You are right in that the Envoy Cadet Program is too new to have had anybody go all the way through it, so there is no way to yet answer that question.
One thing you will learn about pilots is that for some reason, they really like to complain. A lot. Pilots will complain about everything right down to the size of the coffee cups. I would not place too much emphasis on gripes that you read online.
I personally think it is a great program and I would sign up for it if I were instructing now.
Chris
Thank you Chris!
I had the mentality that people generally write reviews when they feel strongly and even more so when its negative feedback but I figured additional research wouldn’t hurt. I feel like it has been overwhelming reading all the information and trying to really get a feel for what day to day life in class, as a CFI, and with Envoy would hopefully be like. Trying to make sure I have as much information as possible before I commit to financing such a large amount.
Kate
Kate,
I completely agree with you. Take a look at our various “Flying the Line” sections as there is a lot of the day in the life type stuff there.
Chris
Kate,
There’s an old saying if someone is happy they’ll tell a friend, if they’re not they’ll tell EVERYBODY. As Chris said pilots like to complain and there are some who make a career of it. I’ve said often it never ceases to amaze me how you can talk to 2 pilots with the exact same job and one will believe they have the greatest job on Earth, the other will swear they’re indentured servants. It really comes down to expectations and perspective.
Adam
I remember the Envoy Cadet program saying somewhere that you will receive employment benefits from Envoy such as flight benefits and health benefits after beginning the cadet program as a flight instructor. However, I wonder, does this allow you to use the jumpseat? I am guessing not as you are not type rated for any plane at the airline and do not hold an ATP certificate.
Eric,
Short answer is no. In order to jumpseat you must be CASS (Cockpit Access Security System) approved which you would not be until you’re actually a pilot flying for Envoy. It actually has more to do with security background checks than type ratings since dispatchers and the FAA can jumpseat but often don’t have either.
Adam
Eric,
No jumpseating. You have to be an airline pilot to have access to the flight deck.