yrbroom

Yeah, peak is obviously around September to apply but it seems we pick up someone new every month or two. Some guys will get their time and quit, even with the contract in place. I got hired in the offseason too so it does happen. You never know when someone will drop out so I would definitely apply to these places even if you want to mention you know it's not peak hiring season but are ready to go whenever they need. I believe AA puts people in a pool after they interview and whenever that opening happens you get the call.

86BravoPapa

Thanks for the information. I plan on applying to all so hopefully a slot will open at some point.

Rotor2prop

If you're close you could finish your commercial SEL/MEL well under $10k including DPE fees. Theres a couple different ways to do it depending on what you want most.

More multi time? Go to Action Multi Ratings to do their multi commercial initial $6900+$500 for DPE then do your SEL add-on close to home in a 150/172 in 3-4 days.

Action Multi Ratings - Multi Engine Training Specialists located in Groton, CT


SEL first the MEL addon? Go to Livingston Aviation and knock both out in about a week for around $6500.

Flight Courses - Livingston Aviation

86BravoPapa

I've been wondering about this. Are there any advantages to doing Commercial MEL first then SEL add-on?

Rotor2prop

Most places charge so much for a multi it ends up costing way more doing multi first but if you do it at a place like Action it will only cost you around $1200 more to do multi first. The one benefit is ~22hrs of multi time verses ~12 for doing the multi as an add-on.

86BravoPapa

That's definitely something to consider. Thank you.

fatman1683

If I were in your shoes, I would look at one of the R-ATP bachelor's degree programs. A lot of them will give you credit for your existing ratings, so it may not take you the full two years to finish.

Since everything is paid through the school it qualifies for federal student loans and aid, which come at a much better rate and terms than private loans for flight training.

With an approved bachelor's degree including 60 hours of coursework you can get your R-ATP at 1000 hours and save half a year of timebuilding.

Here's the list of approved degree programs that qualify for the R-ATP:
https://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/...ority_List.pdf

brocklee9000

Actually, it's not quite that simple. They need to have an FAA letter of authorization for R-ATP eligibility, and that's what trips a lot of people up. At my university, for example, the flight training had to be done in our planes with our instructors at our airport, plus pursue the degree, plus complete at least 60 credit hours from a specific list of courses.

The devil is in the details, and many people have the misconception that they can simply get ratings, get a degree online or in person with a school that's 141, and then they get r-atp reductions. As an academic advisor, I had to have that uncomfortable conversation pretty often. Sometimes it was with a prospective student who was hoping to apply and eventually get r-atp, sometimes it was a graduate of our online degree who heard that rumor and would try to "see if they were eligible" (and sometimes try to argue with me until I had them pull up our LOA). Sadly I had the conversation with recent or soon-to-be graduates who were CFIs and close to their hours, and became quite irate because they had spent the last few years working away at this degree under the misconception they'd get a 500 hour reduction, when in reality they had never informed us of their intentions or asked about r-atp eligibility, until they sat down with a regional recruiter and they said "okay show me your documents for r-atp eligibility," and they had none. Because of these instances, we had to start making it abundantly clear from the first time we spoke with a prospective student that they will not be eligible for r-atp if they were a distance student doing online.

So in short, you can attend a university and go for r-atp eligibility if you follow the letter of authorization carefully, or you can transfer into an aviation program with existing ratings and get transfer credits for those, but you won't get both. There are a handful of exceptions ut they're rare and not worth getting into detail.

brocklee9000

There really aren't any, unless you have a hankering for multi piston PIC. That's really the only reason I can fathom that my school structured private multi before commercial. The other big reason, and I'm noticing this more and more, is that sometimes it's the solution to the complex requirement. When you have a fleet of Diamonds, the only complex is the DA42, so we did comm AMEL then ASEL add on in a DA20. But regardless of fleet type, single complex seem to be an aging and rare breed. Some schools keep their 172RGs and Arrows chugging along, but unless you're a small part 61 school then you just won't be able to keep up with the demand. 100+ students trying to get into a handful of single complex for all of their commercial training is impossible. Especially when they'll be flown to death, who knows how quickly they'll go through 100hr inspections, and who knows what'll go wrong on old aircraft. It creates a bottleneck and it sucks, we had 4 DA42s and there was always 1 or 2 in the hangar. It was tough trying to manage all the private multi and commercial multi students when half the twins were down. Then you go look at schools like ATP or TransPac (now AeroGuard) and see how many seminoles they have and how many are always flying, and then notice they have maybe one Arrow that sits around mostly unused.

kingsnake2

One advantage can be that you can get your 25 hours of multi needed for ATP in one swoop and no need for a single engine complex after that.