Hello everyone. New to this website. I am a USMC vet and looking to get into the aviation industry. Does anyone know of any flight schools in the Alabama area that accepts the GI BILL? I’ve been looking and so far haven’t found any that accepts it. Would love all and any suggestions. Thank you!
Sender Fi brother.
GI Bill doesn’t pay until after you have a Private Pilots license. Also it pays up to $13,000 and some change annually. So keep those things in mind while searching.
Just a heads up if you didn’t already know.
Auburn is probably the best aviation school I can think of in AL. As far as Part 141 schools strictly type schools, Sanders and Etheredge are the only two I know of.
Thanks man I appreciate that. In your opinion would it be better to go college and do that for 2 years or go to a flight training school? I would prefer to be able to go to flight school so it would be faster but I definitely want to use my GI BILL though
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Have you used the WEAMS site through the VA to search for a school? If you Google WEAMS it will let you search schools that accept the GI Bill for flight training. A quick glance shows Auburn University has a flight program that accepts VA benefits. If you go through a Part 141 program that’s in partnership with a university degree program then you GI Bill will cover more than just the $13K of vocational training.
Just so you know, it’s a long road to getting ratings when you go through a university program. Make sure you are prepared to spend the next several years just getting the required ratings to get to the CFI point. The benefit will be the GI Bill will cover the entire cost of flight training and college since Auburn is a public school, especially if they have the Yellow Ribbon program. Just don’t go over your 36 months of benefits!
I use the Liberty FTA program and I’ve only paid for my PPL out of pocket. I start CFI training next semester but it’s taken me 2 years to get to this point and I don’t plan on being completely finished with my CFII and MEI until this time next year. I’ve also been active duty the entire time so my flight time has been limited to about 40ish hours per 16 week semester due to my work schedule.
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I have not tried WEAMS but will do so. Thank you. And I have looked into Auburn and as well as Wallace State. Also the long road to becoming is the downfall going down that route. That’s why I would like to be able to go through a Flight Training School to be able to speed up the process and get into the workforce faster. But if have to go down the college route then I’ll do that. Just trying to find the best route as possible. Thank you for all the info great stuff!
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As Clint said, the WEAMS website tells you all the school you can use.
For the record, only Auburn is listed for Alabama, however, have you looked at going next door to Georgia? Not sure where you live in Alabama, but Georgia has over a dozen schools listed. I’m active duty Army currently but will be leaving next year and I am planning on attending Falcon Academy in Peachtree City, GA because of the GI Bill. Also in case you didn’t know, the nearly $14K reimbursement is done on an Academic Year basis (01AUG-31JUL) so it resets in AUG, not OCT or JAN of each year. Since it shouldn’t take you more than 12 months to train, I would suggest spreading out half the cost before AUG and the other half after so you can use nearly $28K in benefits instead of just the $14K annual cap for your training if you plan on knocking it out as fast as possible.
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Clint, I would like to discuss LU FTA program with you. Do you have an email?