American Airlines Cadet Academy and American Flyers, TX

R

RomeoSierra

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
15
Display Name
Display name:
Romeo Sierra
I saw in the AOPA newsletter this morning that AA is doing a new Cadet Academy which seems to rival the ATP schools.

If you haven't seen the program it's here: http://www.aacadetacademy.com/CadetAcademy/index/1

I was aiming to join ATP later this year once I have finished my PPL and got the 80hrs, and I know there is are some bad feelings about ATP on this forum but I wanted the accelerated school and need the financing options and now this seems a viable option.

On the site it says the training is 'up to 18 months' which seems long but I was talking to the training coordinator at AA and apparently the school will customize the length of program to the student's needs and if you need more time you get it, which seem like a huge advantage over ATP where I've read they charge you if you don't complete in their limited time frame.

They offer the course at American Flyers in Addison and I'm already learning at another KADS school so perfect location, but I don't know about their training methods and equipment as much. Does anyone have any feedback in American Flyers and their training style and equipment availability/reliability and so on?

Thanks
 
If you don't get the complete picture here, check in with the North Texas Aviators Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/154954314873793

There is a wide variety of experience in this group. And I think several are well equipped to answer your questions about American Flyers, the local ATP installation, and the AA Cadet Academy program.
 
Thanks Aggie, looks like I might have to re-join Facebook again :(

And that price tag isn't too bad compared to ATP which makes you add a lot of extras on like training equipment and extra hours based on some other recent threads, the AA program is all in and nothing extra so would work out around the same overall.
 
RomeoSierra said:
I saw in the AOPA newsletter this morning that AA is doing a new Cadet Academy which seems to rival the ATP schools.

If you haven't seen the program it's here: http://www.aacadetacademy.com/CadetAcademy/index/1

I was aiming to join ATP later this year once I have finished my PPL and got the 80hrs, and I know there is are some bad feelings about ATP on this forum but I wanted the accelerated school and need the financing options and now this seems a viable option.

On the site it says the training is 'up to 18 months' which seems long but I was talking to the training coordinator at AA and apparently the school will customize the length of program to the student's needs and if you need more time you get it, which seem like a huge advantage over ATP where I've read they charge you if you don't complete in their limited time frame.

They offer the course at American Flyers in Addison and I'm already learning at another KADS school so perfect location, but I don't know about their training methods and equipment as much. Does anyone have any feedback in American Flyers and their training style and equipment availability/reliability and so on?

Thanks
Click to expand...


IMG_1850.jpg



1364303142_reaction_to_price.gif
 
ATP comes in at $84,000 once you add in training materials and examiner fees, then you need to factor in you might need to buy extra hours due to their strict time limits so price is very comparable if not better.

For someone who doesn't have rich parents or $100,000's in the bank there are very limited options of schools which provide student loans to pay for training and doing one or two lessons a week while working is not feasible with the amount of hours needed to get a job at a regional.

I'm still interested in feedback on American Flyers Addison vs ATP Addison though if anyone has any.
 
Makes me feel more confident in my choice to buy a (relatively) cheap IFR aircraft and grind out my ratings using an independent CFI, then instruct to get to ATP mins. I couldn't see taking out 85k in loans right now :eek:. If you have the funds though and want to get it done as quick as possible then all the power to you.
 
I did the 10 day IFR at American flyers Addison back in 2013. I had no problems with equipment, facilities, or instructors.
 
A bit of thread drift.....

How much does it take in student loans for someone to become a medical doctor? how about lawyer?
 
AggieMike88 said:
A bit of thread drift.....

How much does it take in student loans for someone to become a medical doctor? how about lawyer?
Click to expand...
I don’t know but I was talking to a new hire at a regional that had ~270k in debt for college and flight training. He finished in 4 years with no ride failures. No way in hell I would spend or borrow that kind of money to fly for a living.
 
AggieMike88 said:
A bit of thread drift.....

How much does it take in student loans for someone to become a medical doctor? how about lawyer?
Click to expand...

The difference is those professions start off paying 6 figures instead of 30k
 
Mean debt of between $170-200k for doctor and very similar for a lawyer. And I would be worried if it only cost $20k to become a pilot. Do you really want someone taking care of up to 300 people at 35,000ft who barely has any training and is easily accessible?

If we only flew to make easy money then we're in it for the wrong reasons, surely. Don't know about everyone else but for me it's been a desire since I was little kid and dream to fly. I already have a good paying tech job but don't enjoy it like I do when I'm flying.
 
RomeoSierra said:
ATP comes in at $84,000 once you add in training materials and examiner fees, then you need to factor in you might need to buy extra hours due to their strict time limits so price is very comparable if not better.

For someone who doesn't have rich parents or $100,000's in the bank there are very limited options of schools which provide student loans to pay for training and doing one or two lessons a week while working is not feasible with the amount of hours needed to get a job at a regional.

I'm still interested in feedback on American Flyers Addison vs ATP Addison though if anyone has any.
Click to expand...

Just because one was more of a rip off doesn't mean this isn't overpriced too.


RomeoSierra said:
the training is 'up to 18 months' which seems long
Click to expand...

Have you factored in the time it will take to repay 6 figures of debt with interest?

What you're going to be making as a greenhorn pilot (FYI a good paying airline jobs is not going to be your immediate, or near immediate position), what it will cost to live factoring in that huge amount of debt and monthly bills?

The biggest factor in your speed to getting where you want to go very well might NOT be how how fast you complete a overpriced aviation program, but your flexibility and how long it takes to get into a livable financial situation.

Good buddy of mine financed EVERYTHING, ended up his CPL and about half the debt you're talking about, but still had to take a non aviation job and put his flying somewhat on the back burner to pay off that debt.
We started training and finished our CPLs around the same time, I ended up about 3 years ahead of him flying career wise because of the debt he took on and what he had to do to pay it down.


So what's the cheat code?

Well saving money and not going into it with a bunch of pre existing debt is one.

Having a good idea of what you will or won't make after is two, as in like debate living in a 1970 RV, or flying aboard to hit 1500, or finding a first job that has housing and utilities included.

Another tip, and where a very large chunk of money can be saved is using a freelance CFI, a good CFI will get you through faster than a inexperienced one,they tend be more open to trade or barter, also using sims (even PC ones) to practice IFR when that time comes, even if it isn't logable, it $aves time in the air.

Also look into what skills you currently have to trade, I traded CFIing to a friend who instructed me through some skydiving stuff, perhaps you could build a deck for a CFI in trade for a bunch of instruction, got a dirt bike or a nice car or AR15s, maybe it's time to liquidate some stuff to free up cash, or trade it for instruction or towards rentals or buying a small plane.

Not spending money on more ratings than you need to enter the market is another factor, knowing what ratings you can get from a employer, example as a 250hr wonder not many places will put you in a twin, no need spend thousands and thousands to get a CPL MEL right out the gate, fewer places care about twin time at regionals anyways, if you're going to go to Namibia or Alaska or somewhere to build time you don't even need to get your CFI, and if you do go the CFI path for hours most schools will cover the costs to add on a II or MEI after you've proven yourself working for them.

So....now we have airtime, many folks have had good luck buying a plane, that's what I did, now this doesn't have to be a $100,000 plane, check out something like this, if it has a N number it's time counts just the same, plus it burns auto fuel.

image.png


Not the same one in the add, but same model
memberDaleFinberg.jpg


When you're done you can probably sell it for the same, sometimes even more, than you paid for it.


Some other tricks too, but paying 100k for fast food style flight instruction is a VERY bad idea.
 
Last edited:
Oh jeez, I know there is a lot of debt and it will take a while to pay off and I won't be earning $200k as a first year FO on a regional and I was not asking if I should take on debt. I'm asking about the reputation of a flight school and have already factored in all the money parts.
 
RomeoSierra said:
Oh jeez, I know there is a lot of debt and it will take a while to pay off and I won't be earning $200k as a first year FO on a regional and I was not asking if I should take on debt. I'm asking about the reputation of a flight school and have already factored in all the money parts.
Click to expand...

Ok,

Think everyone already said about the same thing, the schools listed are a bad deal, or rather you could do better.

On American flyers there's tons of photos of big boeings and people wearing pilot outfits, but when I click "about" I see photos of the director but no bios on the CFIs, the ones who are actually going to directly effect the quality of your education, I don't care about the director, I don't care about the school name, I don't care about pictures of the plane I might fly in a decade after graduation, this is in the industry what we call a puppy mill.

You're looking at paying steak house prices for fast food style flight instruction.
 
Last edited:
RomeoSierra said:
Mean debt of between $170-200k for doctor and very similar for a lawyer. And I would be worried if it only cost $20k to become a pilot. Do you really want someone taking care of up to 300 people at 35,000ft who barely has any training and is easily accessible?

If we only flew to make easy money then we're in it for the wrong reasons, surely. Don't know about everyone else but for me it's been a desire since I was little kid and dream to fly. I already have a good paying tech job but don't enjoy it like I do when I'm flying.
Click to expand...
How much money a person spends is mutually exclusive to how professional they will be in my experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top