Journey to Flight School

Introduction Welcome back to my journey to flight school. Today’s blog will be about AA Cadet Academy. This is the American Airline's flight academy for hopeful future pilots. At this academy, you will be selected to train at one of the five academy locations. You will have a current American Airlines pilot mentor that will help guide you through the program. After 18 months in the academy, you will have all of your ratings to be qualified to be a certified flight instructor. Location and Costs There is a total of five academy locations for the American Airlines Academy. Each location has slightly different tuition driven by different training aircraft. Although there are different locations American vows that you will receive a consistently high level of training at each location. The price of the program includes materials, uniforms, and all training (for those who maintain satisfactory academic progress). The cost of housing and meals can be added if necessary. Below is a list o...

  Introduction In this week's blog, I will review The United Aviate Academy. This academy is United Airlines' main pipeline for hiring future pilots for the company. Unlike Destination 225 and Ascend Pilot Academy which are partnered with CAE trading, Aviate has its own training program. This makes it unique compared to other academies. It is also unique because of its in-class schooling, but we will dive more into detail about that later.  Location and Costs Aviate Academy is located in Goodyear, Arizona. Goodyear Airport provides cadets with industry-leading resources, equipment, and accommodations. The facility is one of only three aviation training campuses in the U.S. The facility covers 28 acres. The facility includes an Administrative and Flight Operations building, cafeteria, dormitories, two aircraft maintenance hangars, a simulator, and a facility maintenance building. Aviate offers on-campus housing ranging from $650 to $750 a month. The total cost of getting your c...

Introduction In this week's blog I will be going over another flight school I will be applying to in March/April. This week I will be covering Destination 225. Southwest Airlines and CAE, a worldwide leader in training, collaborated to create the cadet pathway. Located in Mesa, Arizona this pathway teaches participants how to fly without experience. This is a direct path to becoming a First Officer at Southwest Airlines through competency-based training. Location and Costs Destination 225 is located in Mesa, Arizona. Being located in Arizona can be an advantage over other schools because of the weather a lot of the year is clear. The Southwest Airlines Credit Union (SWACU) provides all financing. The current cost of tuition at Destination 225 is $112,515.  Timeline Training at Destination 225 is approximately 13 months from the private pilot license to the Certified Flight Instructor. Cadets can expect up to 40-hour weeks between flying, in the classroom, and studying. Requirements...

  Introduction In the next several blogs I will be going in-depth and talking about a particular flight school I am considering applying to in April. I am going to be sharing information on the flight school and the requirements it takes to be accepted and apply to the school. The flight school I will be going over to today is Ascend Pilot Academy. Ascend Pilot Academy is a flight school through Alaska and Horizon Airlines. Location and Costs Ascend Pilot Academy has two locations. Hillsboro and Redmond Oregon. Each location provides housing. The housing cost at Redmond is $770 a month and at the Hillsboro location, the housing cost is $1,300. The cost of training will be between $65,000 to $80,000. After you are done getting all of your ratings you can earn a stipend of up to $25,000 to be a flight instructor while you are earning your in-flight hours. Timeline The program is structured as an accelerated-paced program. The estimated program duration is 3 to 3.5 years to complete t...