Higher Power Aviation or Pan Am Academy

[mbleo]

Hello everyone,

I am planning to get an initial 737-NG type rating. I have done quiet a bit of search recently of which schools are available in the US. I have boiled down to these academies based of what I have read on PPRuNE and other forums. However, I haven't been able to get any latest/recommended information.

If anyone here has any information on any of these academies, please advise me. If you could recommend any of these based on your experiences, I would really appreciate it. I have contacted each of these schools and have gotted their information. Now I just have to decide which one to choose. They both have the same price point of intial rating at around $12,500 and almost similar course outlines with an exception of groud school. Higher Power is providing 80 hrs of GS compared to PanAm which has 40 hrs of GS and 40 hrs of at home study prior to joining first day.

Any informaition you provide me would be really valuable and help me choose. Thank you guys in advance.

[josmison]

just finish my type on the NG at higherpower on april

i highly recommend them. the training was great eventhough very tense.
the environnment and the people were very very nice and willing to go out of their way to help you out.

i suggest you do some reading before you start if you want to get the best you can out of your training

good luck

[wigwag]

I agree with josmison, HPA was my choice for re-current and they where excellent. Very friendly staff who will do everything they can to help. Depending on your background, i can only recommend do all the GS training you can before the course, relax and enjoy the training when your there.

Check with Pan am though where the ground school is being held and where is the sim training ? Might be same centre but could be another state, in which case you incur travel costs and changing hotels it adds up to being a real pain in the ass.

Hope you have a job in the pipe line, a know a few good guys still no job and out dated type rating, and 3- 4 years on, there struggling to remember how to operate it to standards.

Good luck though.

ww

[mbleo]

Thanks josmison and wigwag...

HPA is my first choice since they have a longer ground school and they are going to provide me the material to study at home as well. I asked some people and ive got some recommendation for PanAm.

Pan Am provides training at either Miami or Las Vegas.

[737-NG]

Live in Dallas, and can't tell you how much of a good reputation they have.
No wonder all the Southwest airline guys do their 737 type over there.

Problem with Pan Am is that it is too much of a self study at home, plus they don't seem to have as many options as far as keeping current.

Good luck.

[VJW]

Here's a question.

I'm typed on the B737 300-900 in Europe, flying the 800 series. My wife is American, and I'm soon to do my upgrade to Captain with my current company.

There's been a lot of talk about the ground school at HPA may be slightly better as you do it all in class, but for someone with hours on type already is this still recommended, or is 50/50 class and home study enough?

My aim is southwest one day, so knowing that SWA use this facility to train there may swing my decision to train there regardless of the answer to my above question.

VJW