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How much does prior flight training help?
- Thread starter kwiksak
- Start date
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
ERAU or similar isn't going to help you any more than some no-name 141 operation. Your tickets, hours and quality of hours are the prime factors in my experience.
And a "professional pilot" degree is really a fancy term for you overpaid for a trade school.
<--Engineer. Who has a crap ton of hours, and is ABD with his ATP.
BUDU
Member
Legitimately curious, since I know nothing about these schools. You still graduate with a bachelors, correct? How does the cost of a four-year degree and flight time at an FBO compare to the cost of a professional pilot degree?
Estimated Costs Undergraduate Students
Item Cost
The Daytona Beach Undergraduate Costs on the Daytona Beach Campus website has additional information.
Tuition and Fees* $30,720
Room and Board $9,340
Books (estimated) $1,400
Total, non-flight students** $41,460
Please note...that's for NON-FLYING STUDENTS! ERAU estimates an additional 15k for the first two years and then 10k for the last two.
Four year grand total? $216,000. Put that in your pipe and smoke it...they clearly are.
Item Cost
The Daytona Beach Undergraduate Costs on the Daytona Beach Campus website has additional information.
Tuition and Fees* $30,720
Room and Board $9,340
Books (estimated) $1,400
Total, non-flight students** $41,460
Please note...that's for NON-FLYING STUDENTS! ERAU estimates an additional 15k for the first two years and then 10k for the last two.
Four year grand total? $216,000. Put that in your pipe and smoke it...they clearly are.
Useless degree or not, ROTC scholarship is free. Even with additional fees. Winning
Nothing is free, my good man.
April 15th is coming soon.
Where you finish doesn't even really matter. That last part does though. As with all things, it's a little timing + hard work = wings.
Prior flight time may or may not matter depending on the person. The best student I've ever flown with had Zero flight time outside of IFS prior to primay. Same with second best student.Both had a natural born ability that placed them ahead of most flight students. The rest of the good students that I remember had a mixed background of experience. Your average flight student will benefit from prior flight time unless they are a complete no talent ass-clown (yes folks, that happens too). People like that can invest as much time and money into getting all the ratings they want. The thing that makes military flight training different from many civi flight schools is that we've got a finite amount of time and events to determine whether or not a student is performing well enough to continue. If you gave everyone as much time as it took for them to perform well, most would be able to make it (hence how some of our foreign national trainees make i through the program), but theres still a subset of individuals who will never be safe and competent flying an aircraft no matter how much time is reasonably invested in them.
mxracer19
Hanging out in K-Vegas.
Ill post my reply as someone who just finished primary. I went into primary with my multi-commercial/instrument and from talking with the other guys around me, it absolutely helped out. Alot of instructors will tell you that it doesn't matter and maybe in the big picture it doesn't...But to give you an idea of the differences, while I was learning how to fly the T-6, my peers were learning how to fly an airplane. When I was learning all about the FMS and the cool things that the T-6 did differently from some of the other aircraft I'd flown, my peers were learning how to read an approach plate. It's the little things that seasoned pilots don't recognize, because they may have forgotten what it was like to learn them the first time. Things like how to write and fly at the same time, what to say (and not say) on the radios, HOW to talk on the radios, how to read a plate, or file in the air, or even just knowing that you can close a flight plan with a FSS. The biggest advantage you have by going through primary with decent prior time is the confidence that comes with knowing that you can fly, and now it's just a matter of learning how to fly a specific airplane in a specific manner. If you approach primary with the mindset that you're already a professional pilot and that you should fly the T-6 like a professional pilot, you'll do well. Know that once your peers find out about your experiance, they'll ask you questions and expect you to know the answers. You should seek out opportunities to help them with things you know. Help your friends, pay attention to what the IPs do, and have fun with the flying. You're flying a small, relatively lightweight 1,100 horsepower two-seater with a bangin' air conditioner. Don't F it up 
-Matt
-Matt
If you approach primary with the mindset that you're already a professional pilot and that you should fly the T-6 like a professional pilot, you'll do well. Know that once your peers find out about your experiance, they'll ask you questions and expect you to know the answers. You should seek out opportunities to help them with things you know. Help your friends, pay attention to what the IPs do, and have fun with the flying. You're flying a small, relatively lightweight 1,100 horsepower two-seater with a bangin' air conditioner. Don't F it up
-Matt
Or as in Matt's case, you'll only be somewhat lost in the sauce in your attempt to fly the T-6 like a professional pilot, instead of completely lost in it, and only have to suffer through hr long debriefs after a PA and RI flights instead of the full hour and a half (or until you cry- whichever comes first). You guys are expected to Eff it up. If you didn't people like me would still be out in the fleet preflighting for 8hrs to go on 3hr bounce flights, or bitching that the 3p messed up the box lunch order, again, on mission flights. Prior flight time or not- theres still plenty of improvement to be made by dudes going through primary. Attitude is everything. It's a lot easier to make you a better pilot when you show up ready to go. The less time I have to spend unfucking your knowledge is more time I can spend on making you great (relatively speaking).
BUDU
Member
I guess I'm sort of adding to the general consensus here, but...
Would it have helped me in training to have prior experience? Absolutely. The prior knowledge and experience can't hurt. Knowing that, would I spend the money for a PPL and a bunch of additional ratings before starting training? Probably not.
Would it have helped me in training to have prior experience? Absolutely. The prior knowledge and experience can't hurt. Knowing that, would I spend the money for a PPL and a bunch of additional ratings before starting training? Probably not.