Hello,
Well I think we are all agreed that the road is long and hard!
Rotorboy, I agree with you that many students are maybe a little naive about the challenge the industry faces. However, most students are not. Most of them do a great deal of research into their school selection and for whatever reasons make their decision.
Logically, if this is where they 'start' their research (as most do), then they are of course going to sound naiive! They have to start somewhere!
I don’t think the flight schools are as malicious as you seem to think they are. A business is a business. The business is trying to take the student’s money, and is in competition with other businesses. Anyone who thinks that the flight school is going to be their best friend really hasn’t got a handle on reality. I can’t see how you can accuse a flight school of ‘steeling’ someone’s money. A flight school thinks of number 1, as should the student.
That’s the harsh reality of life. If you are naive to that fact, than you’ll loose out. It is the same in any industry. So how can you blame the flight school.
Also, I don’t think it is any coincidence that most foreign students arrive at the same decision…HAI. This school is simply filling a gap in the market. There are no underhand marketing tactics or false promises. As I said previously, it’s a case of supply and demand…and the school that meets that demand will get the business.
If you have a 1000 hrs and a heart beat at the moment there is the gulf ( begging for guys), tours in Veags, the Ditch and AK (begging too), getting turbine time these days is easy.
Rotorboy, your comment is only true for those with the right to live and work in the US. For the foreign student, it is still (and always will be) a challenge to land that first job.
My advice to anyone on or starting a J1 is start preparing early. What are you going to do when that J1 visa expires? So start getting visa applications in early. Get yourself married to an American early. Enrol to a JAA ground school early. Muscle your way onto the company turbine aircraft early. Do whatever you need to do, but do it early.
This is where I see most people drop out. The 2 years on the J1 visa flies by, and suddenly they are stuck…faced with maybe a year of no flying while they take exams and look for jobs.
Personally, it is none of my business or care, the path someone takes to get ahead. If I could then I would. If I started at the same time as someone else, and he got ahead by a different route, then so be it! I don’t see why you are so personally aggrieved by these guys wanting to go over on the J1 to HAI. As Decks says, there are a great number of HAI grads working the European industry. If the name helps (and I can assure you it does) then why not use it. As we all know, jobs are about a little luck and ‘who you know’.
I agree , why don’t these people do a search here (I am not going to provide the link) but this was discussed late last year. Most people here already know how I feel about that one.
Lastly, why are you so personally put out by people not searching? I worry about people being killed in wars or tsunamis, that sort of thing. Not because some guy didn’t use a search. If I feel moved I will either answer the question again, point the newbie in the direction of the search function, or ignore the post…let someone else deal with it. But I don’t take it personally at all!
Cl12pv2s