Expert: D. Norkus - 10/5/2006

Question
  As long as I can remember I have been fascinated by airplanes. Sometimes when we go on trips I think I'm more excited about going on the plane than the actual vacation. I'm 16 years old and I'm a Junior in High School. In the past year I have really been focusing on what career I want. I am definetly sure I want to be an Airline Pilot. I am planning on going to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. I have heard many great things about the university. So I just have a few questions to ask. Is Embry-Riddle the best choice for me in becoming an airline pilot? After I graduate what kind of airline do graduates work for; regional airlines like Mesa Airlines or Legacy Airlines like Northwest and Delta? I have heard that the outlook for airline pilots look great with a lot of airline pilots retiring within the next ten years, so is this a great time to start on becoming a pilot? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
Cody

"Is Embry-Riddle the best choice for me in becoming an airline pilot?"

While ERAU is certainly a great school, and tops in that area, it is an education for which you will pay dearly- especially when airlines could care less where you went to get an education. They are more interested in your flight experience, not the name of your school. No doubt they are a top notch institution, just take their new student marketing PR with a grain of salt, OK?

Typically a grad can expect to be pay about $80,000-100,000 for their degree and pilot training. Quite a bit for a job that starts out at a mere $18,000/yr at the regional level. Depending on your ability to get scholarships or funds from your parents, a degree from ERAU may be prohibitively expensive. I certainly couldn't afford it, so I did all my flight training locally for far less money, then transfered after two years at a community college to one of their Extended Campus locations. I was very happy with my E.C. ERAU experience. I know three people (one is now at a major & two are regional) that attended ERAU Prescott and can pass on some responses to your specific inquiries about campus if you like, but one of them said they definately would not go that route again due to the debt factor.

I suggest searching the pilot message boards at these links for "ERAU" and see what comes up. You will find days worth of reading about them (and every other university & flight school) by current & former stuidents, so you can be better informed about deciding to attend. Jetcareers even has a section just for ERAU:

http://forums.jetcareers.com
http://forums.flightinfo.com

Another factor to consider is how marketable or useful your major will be if you ever get furloughed. The airline industry has some very big ups & downs every decade or so. If you find yourself laid off for a period of time, you will need to find something you can fall back on if flying isn't an option and your degree may be key to gaining employment. Aviation degrees are very narrow and not much can be done with them outside of a few career choices. Luckily for me, when I experienced my first furlough as an airline pilot (Wiil there be more? Who knows!) I had a ground based airline job to fall back on. Many others were not so lucky and went to Starbucks or Home Depot. I hardly flew for two years until my recall as the industry hand tanked post 9/11  and pilot jobs were so scarce. It is a possibility you must consider happening to you at least once during your career.

Read more about college degrees for pilots here- http://www.jetcareers.com/content/view/22/44/

"After I graduate what kind of airline do graduates work for; regional airlines like Mesa Airlines or Legacy Airlines like Northwest and Delta?"

Neither.
Upon graduation you will have your bachelors degree and your pilot certificates but you still won't have the flight experience needed to qualify for the regional airlines much less the majors. Most grads have < 400 Total Time (flight time) and the regionals require 1,000TT with 100 ME (multi-engine) and the majors 3-4 times that. You will have to find a time building job or flight instruct like everyone else did to meet the hiring minimums.

"I have heard that the outlook for airline pilots look great with a lot of airline pilots retiring within the next ten years, so is this a great time to start on becoming a pilot?"

While many are retiring, there are still literally thousands of pilot on furlough. Although some pilot magazines have ads from flight schools that tout an upcoming "pilot shortage", there really is no such thing. A shortage of well qualified pilots perhaps, but not in general. This career is almost a roll of the dice. If you really want it, you must go with reckless abandon no matter if it is a "good time" to do so or not as your seniority is everything in this business. Your date of hire will rule your life including everything from schedules, aircraft choice, domicile and upward movement. However, you do need to be aware of the sacrifices you will need to make financially and in your personal life to do so. The first few years will be tough and the pay will be very low.

"Any information would be greatly appreciated."

Read my website about training, getting hired and airline pilot careers for more info as I created it to help people with the 'big picture':

http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html

I also put links to every other site a career minded pilot ought to visit for more on the subject at the bottom.

Hope this helps
Dottie