Good evening everyone, I’m set to eas from the military and was looking into embry, Purdue etc for their flight programs. Thing is apparently it won’t cover the flight lessons at embry. Still waiting on Purdue to answer back. Will the G.I bill cover atp?
Kerman,
The short answer is no. The main reason is the GI Bill limits the amounts of money and training you can do per year. ATPs program is highly accelerated and therefore is incompatible.
Adam
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Thank you!
Kermen,
I get out of the Army in September and I start ATP in October so I have likely done very similar research to you by this point. The G.I bill will not cover ATP because it is an accelerated program and clearly exceeds the annual limit.
My personal opinion is finance ATP through Sallie mae and use your benefits down the road as you build hours. The VA will reimburse you for all fees and knowledge test which comes out to around $8,000 total. When you enroll, ATP will make sure your aware of how the process works.
A few brief thoughts, not to insult your Intelligence if you are aware of this information already. Perhaps it could be helpful to someone reading and also if anything is inaccurate please fact check and make corrections! I am pulling this either off the top of my head or a quick google search.
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G.I bill doesn’t cover any Part 61 training so you would need a part 141 program. Essentially your timeline would be closer to 3-4 years while at university.
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The annual cap for flight training is roughly $14,000 at a stand-alone part 141 flight school, and does not cover any portion of Private pilot training. So upfront your still looking at out of pocket cost or have your PPL already.
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To maximize benefits regarding university tuition + Flight training cost you would need to ensure that school participates in the Yellow ribbon program which essentially covers the difference when you exceed the yearly $25,000 cap (estimate) from the post 9/11 benefits.
- It’s obviously more complex than that, but generally speaking these are the starting points to begin your research. Another school you could look at is Liberty University. They seem to have a bad reputation but if you have no other choice or can’t do ATP then I’m pretty sure they at least cover most of the flight training with your benefits except Private, however you may not qualify for BAH.
In my personal opinion, do ATP if possible because it’s fast and efficient, pay as much as you can out of pocket, and finance the rest through Sallie mae. This would allow you to take advantage of all fees reimbursed ($8k) and hopefully once complete, a CFI job after only one year as opposed to 4 years.
while you build hours use your G.I bill to finish your degree online, utilize the partial BAH you will be receiving ($900/month for online school) to pay your loan payments for the next 2-3 years.
I’m not claiming to be an expert and I’m sure someone out there has the perfect solution, but I want to offer you an alternative perspective that is 100% my opinion only. It is honestly complicated and a lot of information I have found online is unclear on how the process works, So I understand what you are going through!
Jimmy
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Jimmy,
Thank you for adding your adding your insight here. Good luck in the program and please keep us up to date as you go through.
Chris
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