Flight training from a Pilot Factory or small operation?

[IceWater]

I'm looking for a school in the East coast, mainly in the Connecticut area. I'm wondering where would training be perfered? At a large School like Helicopter Adventures inc or a small commercial operation? It looks like the small operations would have more veterans teaching than a large school would. I think It would be great to be surrounded with alot of experience, but the main thing that worrys me is employment as a CFI later on down the line. It seems like the big schools prefer to hiring their own and there's always openings as CFI's move on in their professional career, but if I were to go with the smaller guys, there's less room to hire students. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance for your help everyone!

[jehh]

First look at the employment section here and at Justhelicopers. There are lots of CFI positions open, you just have to be willing to move to where the work is, but that is true of aviation in general.

 

Second, the school isn't who teaches you to fly, the instructor is. Find an instructor you like, then work with them to get your ratings. A good CFI in a bad school can teach you well, a bad CFI in a good school is still a bad CFI.

 

Personally, I prefer the smaller, local school, I get better service there than at a big pilot mill. My 2 cents...

[ascott20]

Small schools almost always trump the factories. The factories promise everyone a job, which means that you probably won't get one, or available flight time is limited. Most flight schools prefer to hire from within; especially a student that did all of their training with them. You'll also get a lot more help and experience from the staff and instructors.

[HelliBoy]

Since everyone's touting the smaller schools, I'll point out some of the benifits of a 'factory'. A couple points; any school that promises you a job, sight unseen, is blowing smoke up your ass. Also, if you're not planning on being a full time student, then a place like HAI is probably not for you. Its easy to get lost in the shuffle. Some of the good things:

-Larger fleets mean a lot of mechanics, and broken bird isnt going to screw you for two weeks.

-Lots of CFIs mean that you'll be able to find that one that works best for you. It also means a larger knowledge pool, if your cfi cant make sense of something to you, someone else will. They'll also fly with you, and having a certain maneuver taught to you in a different way by a different person is invaluable in my opinion.

-Big schools didnt get big by being unsafe or having a poor cirriculum. A school like HAI has worldwide recognition, and when you're interviewing for that first turbine job, theres a good chance that he'll feel comfortable in knowing what he's getting.

-As far as I could find in my research when I started training, big schools have pretty competitive pricing, if they're not cheaper outright.

 

In my humble opinion, bigger is better, but thats just me. The smaller outfit I first flew at was way too slow. Big is fast- 10 months ppl, instrument, cpl, cfi, cfii.

[jehh]

Since everyone's touting the smaller schools, I'll point out some of the benifits of a 'factory'. A couple points; any school that promises you a job, sight unseen, is blowing smoke up your ass.

 

Quite true, no one can promise you a job, if they did, you're buying a job, not flight training.

 

Also, if you're not planning on being a full time student, then a place like HAI is probably not for you. Its easy to get lost in the shuffle. Some of the good things:

-Larger fleets mean a lot of mechanics, and broken bird isnt going to screw you for two weeks.

 

Quite true, a smaller school might have 2 or 3 helicopters, if one goes down, it can make scheduling harder.

 

That being said, look at the school's schedule, you might find they don't book the aircraft so much that one aircraft going down for an inspection or m/x causes that kind of problem.

 

-Lots of CFIs mean that you'll be able to find that one that works best for you. It also means a larger knowledge pool, if your cfi cant make sense of something to you, someone else will. They'll also fly with you, and having a certain maneuver taught to you in a different way by a different person is invaluable in my opinion.

 

That may be true, but that doesn't mean you cannot find a quality instructor at a smaller school. You may find a high time pilot who loves teaching, and has no career planned beyond teaching, and those are usually good people to learn from.

 

-Big schools didnt get big by being unsafe or having a poor cirriculum. A school like HAI has worldwide recognition, and when you're interviewing for that first turbine job, theres a good chance that he'll feel comfortable in knowing what he's getting.

 

True, but I can tell you from experience, no one cares where you got your training at.

 

In my humble opinion, bigger is better, but thats just me. The smaller outfit I first flew at was way too slow. Big is fast- 10 months ppl, instrument, cpl, cfi, cfii.

 

If you were full time, 10 months isn't fast actually... I've seen it done in less than 7 months, and heard of it being done in less than 6.

 

Big schools have their advantages, but they also lack personality. I've worked with several HAI graduates, and HAI puts out a decent product, but I wouldn't say it is any better than anyone else puts out.

[AutoMatic]

Since everyone's touting the smaller schools, I'll point out some of the benifits of a 'factory'. A couple points; any school that promises you a job, sight unseen, is blowing smoke up your ass. Also, if you're not planning on being a full time student, then a place like HAI is probably not for you. Its easy to get lost in the shuffle. Some of the good things:

-Larger fleets mean a lot of mechanics, and broken bird isnt going to screw you for two weeks.

-Lots of CFIs mean that you'll be able to find that one that works best for you. It also means a larger knowledge pool, if your cfi cant make sense of something to you, someone else will. They'll also fly with you, and having a certain maneuver taught to you in a different way by a different person is invaluable in my opinion.

-Big schools didnt get big by being unsafe or having a poor cirriculum. A school like HAI has worldwide recognition, and when you're interviewing for that first turbine job, theres a good chance that he'll feel comfortable in knowing what he's getting.

-As far as I could find in my research when I started training, big schools have pretty competitive pricing, if they're not cheaper outright.

 

In my humble opinion, bigger is better, but thats just me. The smaller outfit I first flew at was way too slow. Big is fast- 10 months ppl, instrument, cpl, cfi, cfii.

 

 

 

In my opinion I like the middle schools 2 to 5 locations. I have been working as a CFII for a while and Have worked for both types ( YES I AM SORRY I DID WORK FOR THE GREAT BIG SCHOOL SOMETHING I AM NOT PROUD OF ) The large school I just mentioned has a terrible cirriculum. For instance straight ins and 180s only. What happens if you have a failure and your not lined up on a good spot. You need to know that you can speed up and slow down autos. You will not get that at THE BIG SCHOOL. You need to find a school that will train you to the best of YOUR abilities. Maintenance is ALWAYS a concern no matter the size of the school. We had five heli's and I still had times where I had to cancel students so dont belive all that hype. its aviation its going to happen. In my experence the smaller schools have an awesome pool of knowledge to draw from so finding the right instructor is inportant but remember that the smaller schools usually hang on to there instructors much longer than the BIG SCHOOLS. Best of luck fly safe and gos speed