Continuing Ed

Opening Doors In Aviation

I have to admit that I'm a tad jealous of my middle son, Ian. He's a junior at a college here in Florida and a private pilot, and he seems pretty certain that he wants to make his way in life by flying aircraft. When I was his age I also was a college student and a private pilot, but I wasn't quite as clear about my career choice. Even if I had wanted to fly for a living, the opportunities were hard to come by. The airlines were furloughing pilots rather than hiring them, and corporate flying jobs were scarce. Things are far different today. The timing couldn't be better for young aviators like Ian.

These are the best of times in professional aviation. Everyone's in need of pilots, from the military services to the major airlines, and it looks like the good times will continue well into the foreseeable future. If you want to fly aircraft, maintain them, control them, or manage them, this millennium - OK, this decade, at least - is for you.

The issue facing someone looking at a career in aviation isn't whether or not there will be a job waiting when he or she is ready to go to work but which direction to choose and how best to obtain the right aviation-specific education, training, and experience. The training choices are as varied as the potential career paths. For a pilot, those choices range all the way from earning certificates and ratings the old-fashioned way - over time, paying as you go, and gradually building a resume - to spending a huge chunk of dollars to sprint from zero hours through a fulltime aviation training academy and directly into the right seat of a regional airliner.

Ian has spent a lot of time lately trying to decide which animal he would rather emulate on the road to a paid seat in the front of an airplane: the slow, deliberate tortoise or the quick, impatient hare. I have taken a parental view of the situation, which loosely translates to "What's to decide? Shouldn't you do all you can as quickly as you can to prepare yourself for a job that has wonderful potential for future earnings and quality of life?"

Kids usually do exactly the opposite of what their parents recommend, so it's not surprising that Ian has been leaning toward a contrary view. He hasn't exactly jumped on my suggestion to consider taking the expressway to an airline pilot career. One reason is the money. He ? we - could spend $60,000 or more at a professional pilot training academy. And that would be after he graduates from college, which is no small financial undertaking in itself.

The alternative, he reasons, is to spend the 18 months he has left in college also working on his instrument and multiengine ratings and commercial and flight instructor certificates, using local flight schools. That way he would graduate from college with most of the basic credentials needed to join the professional pilot ranks. It would be expensive, sure, but far less than enrolling in a fulltime academy.

"Yes, but the academies train to airline standards, and regional airlines are hiring right out of the academies," I say. "You don't have to spend time in the trenches building time before you become an attractive candidate to the airlines. As for the expense, you'll soon be earning good money to pay it back!"

"That may be true, but I'm not 100 percent sure I even want to fly for the airlines," he rebuts. "I just don't know yet. But I do know that I'd like to experience all aspects of flying before I decide - tailwheels, aerobatics, soaring. And my CFI uncle, Gerry, and his CFI wife, Faith, have offered to put me up for the summer in Memphis and let me fly their Piper J-3 Cub while giving me instruction toward my instrument rating or commercial certificate. How cool is that?"

Very, I have to admit. He's made me realize that I'm pushing too hard for my point of view, but then again, it's a parent's job to urge a prosperous and stable life on their kids. I made a compromise suggestion: Why not visit a training academy or two to see what they're all about? At least then you can base your decision on the facts. I sweetened the offer by saying we'd go in my airplane, and he could do the flying.

We're lucky in that Florida's great year-round flying weather has led to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to flight schools. We're loaded with them in every size and description, including large, professional pilot training institutions. While cruising the exhibit hall at AOPA Expo 2000 in Long Beach, California, last October, I stopped by the booths of two such Florida-based schools, Comair Aviation Academy and FlightSafety Academy, to ask a few questions.

I came away with invitations for Ian and me to visit both schools, which we did. I flew up to Gainesville early one morning to retrieve Ian. We headed southeast to Sanford for a morning tour of Comair, and at 12:30 p.m. we got back in the airplane and flew to Vero Beach for an afternoon tour of FlightSafety Academy.

The two and one-half hours we spent at each school were enough to get a good overview of the curriculum, fleet, and facilities. Ian and I both would want to investigate any such professional academy more thoroughly before committing to an intensive year of expensive training, but we did draw some conclusions.

First, both schools serve a combination of foreign and U.S. students, and both are operating at peak capacity. The word is definitely out that opportunity knocks - no, it pounds - on the door of people who want to fly professionally.

Second, these are no fun-in-the-sun vacation programs. This is all-day, every-day pilot training. To succeed, you have to want to succeed. For many students, that means graduating, then working at the school for about a year as a flight instructor. Both academies have arrangements with Delta-owned regional carriers to put graduates with instructor experience at the top of their interview and hiring lists, although there is no requirement that graduates go with the affiliated airlines.

Third, if you do succeed in either program, the chances are excellent that you'll soon be drawing a paycheck as a professional pilot on a regional airliner. It'll be a relatively small check to begin with, but the seniority and the pay move up the scale quickly.

Our day was well spent. Ian now knows a lot more about that training avenue, in particular the great potential it offers for job placement. Of course, he did not decide that a professional pilot training academy definitely is the way to go for him, but he didn't rule it out, either.

Meanwhile, he hopes to take my brother and his wife up on their generous summer training and tailwheel flying offer. He and I have talked about soaring instruction, and I'd love for him to learn how to fly upside down in a Pitts. I did, and it's one of the best flight training experiences I've ever had.

I respect Ian's thinking. He believes that by taking his time and getting wide exposure to all kinds of flying, he'll develop into a more seasoned, well-rounded pilot than if he were trained from the start for a two-pilot airliner. And who knows, he might decide to fly helicopters for a medevac operation, or crop dusters in California's farm country, or a Gulfstream V for a major corporation, or two- and four-seat trainers for a local flight school. Right now he wants to study the entire chart before flight-planning his specific route.

I had been thinking - a little enviously, I admit - about all of the possibilities that are open to Ian when he called recently to say that he'd been re-evaluating his future. Uh oh, I thought. What now?

"I think I'll try for the military," he said. "I want to fly Air Force jets."

Like I said, these are the very best of times.