Hmnnn,
This is my first ever posting on PPrune but I feel I have something worth saying as regards Pilot Assist College.
So far it has only been those affiliated with Pilot Assist college that have had anything to say largely in its favour. I am not currently a Pilot Assist student, however my experience with Pilot Assist is not one of Scare Tactics, Money Grabbing antics or Inconsistencies. Bar the relatively few sponsorship opportunities in this country obtaining that position in the right hand seat with a minimum of 200 hrs is like jumping from a driving license to an F1 racer.
Ive never been more dispondant than coming away from some of the larger, well-established training organisations that have no interest in whether or not I had the aptitude, intelligence or at the very least the motivation to succeed. I had the cash to pay them and that was all that mattered. How uneasy we would feel if doctors could buy their way to their qualifications. Flight training is expensive, of that there is no doubt, but the same rigorous requirements for entry into top universities should be applicable to flight training schools to protect both parties.
Pilot Assist is the ONLY college to have taken a look at the bigger picture with me, my aptitude, my qualifications and my personal qualities. Make no mistake, had I not met up to their selective requirements Id have been shown the door, no matter how much money I laid on the table. Indeed, it is because pilot assist is a new company that i have faith in them - much rests on the line as far as the founders reputations are concerned. Only those who they believe (these guys have experience here) to possess the qualities the airlines are looking for are offered a place to recieve an excellent level of training and that all important airline prep. That little bit extra that will get that position in the aviation equivalent of the F1 racer that the larger establishments fail to offer.
There are no guarantees in this business - Pilot Assist, I dont believe, are making out to be a job agency. Rather a facilitater where should the student pull their weight, then rather than a 'goodbye' once the ATPL has been obtained the final and biggest hurdle is then jumped with you but not for you.
This is a refreshing approach to flight training - its far easier to see the bad than the good in anything in life - but lets gets behind this one, it could be ground breaking in a very positive manner.
[ 27 August 2001: Message edited by: First Officer Morrell ]