Heres why you DONT leave flight school without your CFI and CFII certificates: So if you or someone you know thinks they got the system figured out and feels they dont need to teach heres some good reading. -Flight School Tuition, interest, expenses, fees etc. $50,000 -4 year degree from OSU $25,000 -I had to buy my flight time by renting airplanes to comply with the new ATP minimums of Xcountry time, night time and the other fine detail hours that cost me $15,000 So far the grand total sits at $90,000 approx (but probably more) Based on a few interviews and talking to recruiters and HR personnel Ive concluded that my instrument skills and knowledge are no where near satisfactory to pass any airline interview. Let alone get through a part 121 ground school or 121 checkride. *(Let me be very clear that you DO NOT want to fail one of those, it looks horrendously bad on you)* The days of building experience by flying overnight checks or whatever else was around are extinct. Yes Skydive pilot, banner towing, fire patrol are available but believe me and speaking from experience you will not hone any instrument skills doing those jobs. In fact your knowledge will degrade faster than it takes you to fall asleep reading the first chapter of the pilots handbook of aeronautical knowledge. This can be fixed however it will take about 200 hours of pure instrument time and lots of studying in between maybe even an IFR refresher course, this will add about $20,000 to my grand total making my investment $110,000 + compiling interest, at my age this is the point where the investment far exceeds what I can recoup from the job. Now I know there are some people asking why get a new car? My rebuttal is, why buy $35,000 of flight time when in essence you shouldnt have to? Nor is it very practical (at least I can justify the car) Soon enough there will be more n more of people I know taking selfies next to a regional jet in their shiny new uniform, or more pictures of cool stuff at airline ground school. Whereas Ill be walking around with my instrument flying handbook cause all I can afford at this point is to read that book. Moral of the story is: instrument flight is crucial in the airlines if you dont have a CFII grasp on it, best fix it quick or get in that instructors seat until something clicks or youll end up like...well me
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:12:46 +0000
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