Is it ok to go to a flight school instead of college?

Thanks for the reply Chris.

I would still be flying a few times a week so I’m not too worried about keeping my skills up, and I would love to be a CFI to gain the 1,500 hours. In this day of age with the pilot shortage, how much do you think the airlines prefer a 4-year degree vs a 2-year degree vs no degree at all?

Ryan

Ryan,

The regionals are not concerned with a degree at all. The majors absolutely want a four year degree. Even if they don’t specifically state so, I can tell you that I do not know any pilots at the majors that do not have degrees.

Chris

Chris,

Okay, that’s what I’ve heard from others as well. If I were to have a 4-year degree in film would that mean anything to the majors, or would they much prefer to see a degree in something else? Again, I really appreciate your quick responses. I’ve seen you all over this forum and think it’s great that you’re so willing to give advice to young pilots.

Ryan

Ryan,

Short answer is no, the Majors want a degree from a reputable school but care little as to the field of study.

I recommend you visit the FAQ section as it has the answer to this and many other common questions.

Adam

I’m just confused, all the mentors say you need a degree to get a job with a major. Then ATP tells you, you don’t need a degree to get on with certain majors, America’s being one of those, if you go through the Flow through program under Americans airlines.

Keaton,

If you read closely, we do not say that you will positively need a degree for the majors, we generally mention the American Airlines exception. Read our FAQ post to see exactly what we say: Do I Need A College Degree To Be An Airline Pilot?

However, American is currently the only major that I know of to hire pilots without college degrees, and that is only if the pilots go through their flow through programs. As a prospective new pilot, I would not want to limit myself solely to one major airline, hence why we recommend that all pilots have degrees if they would like to someday work for the majors.

Chris

Keaton,

No confusion. IF you get through your training without excessive busts and IF you get accepted into an AA or Envoy Cadet program after and IF you don’t suffer any accidents, incidents or violations while instructing and IF you then get hired by one of AAs Regionals and IF you’re a model Regional pilot and IF AA doesn’t cancel or slow the flow and IF AA doesn’t change the terms of the flow then yes you’re correct you don’t need a degree.

For me that’s a few too many IFs, particularly if you’re there and you find all your friends with degrees are getting hired by Delta while you’re waiting for your number to come up.

Adam

Makes since, I was just asking. I told ATP I would rather get a degree in order to have more options. I’m in middle of of my aa already anyhow. So I think the plan will be to finish it up, go to ATP. Get hired by regional an then finish up Bachelor. One quick question, why do y’all say it’s nearly impossible to do a class or two while flight instructing?

Keaton,

The program is expensive and requires students to commit fulltime with little or no distractions. ATP expects the same from the instructors providing the training.

How would you feel if you invested $85k+ into your training, had a checkride coming up, needed some additional work and your instructor told you sorry but I’ve got a paper due and I’m not available?

Adam

Keaton,

ATP’s program is very intense. The reality is that you probably could do a class or two while in training, but something is going to suffer, either your college classes or your flying. Likely it will be the flying that suffers, which can lead to check ride failures that you will need to explain in airline interviews.

It is only a nine month program, the college classes can wait.

Chris

One more quick question, what is the life like when Having multiple flights in a day, and waiting in between each flight? Or staying over night at a airport, and leaving the following morning. What do you do in the off time while waiting on a flight? Obviously when it’s a couple hours or longer, not just 30 minutes. And ofcourse you sleep if it’s over night, really just wandering about when it’s 2 or 3 hours. Y’all may have answered this question somewhere, I just haven’t came across it. I understand all cases are different, and company’s are different, but for in general, what’s it the best reasonable answer for the question.

Keaton,

Funny you should ask, I am currently in the middle of a eight hour maintenance delay. Because of the severity of this delay, the company provided a hotel room for me. Generally on the 2-3 hour sits in between flights I grab food, make phone calls and answer questions on this website :slight_smile:

Chris

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Good answer, another question I should ask, is how do you get back an forth an around when you are waiting on the next flight?

Keaton,

Most hotels have shuttles. There are also cabs, Uber and public transportation.

Adam

So basically nothing to do with the Company you work for while waiting on a flight, Inless it’s a long period of time or something unexpected.

Keaton,

I assumed you were talking about transportation on overnights? Again the hotels often have shuttles that will take you to and from the airport. Sometimes the shuttles will take you other places, if not it’s on you.

Not sure what you mean or where you want to go “while waiting for a flight”?

Adam

Yeah, that’s basically what I meant. Is over night or if you have a long weather delay or whatever the case may be. I don’t see sitting in a airport for 4 or 5 hours, Unless that’s just what pilots do…

Sitting is what we do. Plans often change quickly during delays and wearing your uniform into the local bar or amusement park is never a good idea.

That’s what I was wandering. Didn’t know if since y’all may be in a down town tourist town, go down town an tour it, or just hangout and wait on a new plan.

Keaton,

You better get that idea out of your head right now. While you may not “see sitting in an airport for 4-5 hrs” I promise you will be. If there’s a delay (whether it be for weather, maintenance, etc) and they say expect 4hrs and you think cool, there’s this great restaurant I’ve always wanted to try and go. If the plane gets fixed, swapped, the weather improves or the airline simply reassigns you and you’re not there, guess who gets to spend quality time with the Chief Pilot getting chewed out. Further if this happens at a Regional and the operation gets interrupted and the CP is fired up enough you can forget about that flow you were counting on to the Majors.

Adam