Q

I am getting ready to retire from the military and would like to pursue a career as an airline pilot. I have a commercial single-engine certificate with an instrument rating and 400 hours of flight time. I have a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. I am very interested in the PACE program at San Juan College that is partnered with Mesa Air Group. Do you know of any similar programs at other colleges or universities? -- Aaron from New Hampshire

The Mesa Airlines association with San Juan College was actually one of the first ab initio programs developed in the United States. Ab initio is a concept that was pioneered by foreign airlines. Since general aviation is virtually nonexistent in many foreign countries, overseas airlines recruit young talent for their flight decks and train them from the very first hour to fly Boeing and Airbus equipment.

Larry Risely, Mesa's founder, launched the Mesa Airlines Pilot Development Program in the 1980s in Farmington, New Mexico. Although San Juan College runs the program and uses its faculty to teach ground school and traditional academics, Mesa Airlines pilot instructors teach the flight portion.

The original Mesa PDP concept involves earning a two-year degree at San Juan College in about 18 months along with all the necessary FAA certificates and ratings to fly for Mesa. Mesa PDP students are not trained to become flight instructors first, but professional airline pilots from the get-go. That is a key difference between Mesa's PDP and most other programs. A number of years ago, Mesa introduced the Professional Airline Career Enhancement (PACE) program to attract pilots who may already have a degree and FAA credentials. This transition program takes the GA pilot from piston airplanes to regional jets in about 19 weeks for under $25,000.

Gulfstream Academy in Fort Lauderdale is airline-owned and places graduates into airline service. In a few months, depending upon previous experience, Gulfstream will put its grads in the right seat of a Beech 1900 airliner flying FAR Part 121 flights for its Continental Connection feeder airline. However, unlike Mesa's program, which aims to earn you a full-time job with the company, the Gulfstream program promises 250 hours of actual airline experience. After that, some Gulfstream pilots may be offered full-time jobs, while others may be shopped to Gulfstream's affiliate airlines.

The only other airline-owned training enterprise is Delta Connection Academy in Sanford, Florida. Originally called Comair Academy, the organization trained its students to fly exclusively for Comair. As the company matured, it has broadened its scope to provide flight personnel for a number of Delta Connection partners. At DCA, students are groomed first as flight instructors. After serving as CFIs for several hundred hours, the graduates r�sum�s are passed around to any number of Delta Connection regional airlines followed by interviews.

When researching your options, remember a few important considerations. First, no program guarantees a job. Second, the PACE program trains pilots specifically for the Mesa Air Group; check with company pilots to assess the quality of life at Mesa and the airline's health. Third, if the airlines are not hiring, that flow-through from any school to an air carrier will stop dead.

Send us your career question and we'll answer the best ones here. Sorry, but we are not able to provide individual responses. Wayne Phillips is an airline transport pilot with a Boeing 737 type rating. He is a B-737 instructor and operates the Airline Training Orientation Program in association with Continental Airlines. He is an aviation safety consultant in Michigan and speaker for the AOPA Air Safety Foundation.