I need reviews about my flight training project !

[kilomike_19]

Dear Canadian aviatiors,
I’m a young guy, no Canadian, and I’m thinking to start my aviation career in Canada. I’m writing this thread to show you my decisions and, as a rookie in the aviation world, I hope to receive advice on your part.
Well, when I started to search flight schools in Canada I focused mainly in Quebec. I’m a francophone and I thought that going to a francophone area will help me to adapt more easily. Finally, many reasons forced me to see more options across Canada. After a month investigating practically every FTU I decided to do my training at Harv’s Air. Well, I was happy, I thought I had finally reached a decision.But later, consulting with a friend I came to the conclusion that I have to do post-secondary studies. So again I started researching about aviation degrees. Sincerely, I think that “Aviation Diploma” are really useless. There are universities in Europe that they offer the same stuff and eventually became clear that they were not useful. So I look for degrees with no relation to aviation but… I ONLY LIKE AVIATION !

In sum, after this quite long story of my life, I decided to start an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Diploma in Red River College in Winnipeg, and at same time get my flying lessons at Harv’s Air. The price is equivalent to an Aviation Diploma and, in my point of view, the Maintenance diploma is more useful.

What do you think about my decision?

Fell free to write good and bad reviews

Thank you very much
Yours, kilomike

[nine sixteenths]

I think you need to decide if you want to fix planes or fly planes. The maintenance diploma does not permit you to immediately start fixing them. It allows you to start apprenticing to fix them, which means working full time for the next 2-4 years, depending on a lot of variables, before you can get your AME license. It will be nearly impossible to attain your commercial pilot's license and fly for a job at the same time.

As to just getting the maintenance diploma then going flying for a living, you won't be putting yourself further ahead that way either. Again, the diploma is not much use unless you complete the apprenticeship after.

Why not try a buisness degree of some sort, that way you'll have some formal training if you go towards a management route later in your career?

9/16"

[kilomike_19]

Thanks for this useful advice !

I spent this morning searching info for some colleges like Conestoga and Algonquin... Are there this degrees useful? Moreover, I read a lot of recommendations about Sault and Confederation colleges... Yeah, there are subsidized by the goverment but Sault operates Zlin's (in my opinion one of the worst planes for training) and Confederation only have SEP planes... So I tend tend to schools that operate classic Cessnas and multiengine planes...

I'm very confused...

[Meatservo]

Make a decision and then follow it to its conclusion. It doesn't matter what you do. The one thing that no-one in Canada can tolerate is an idiot who keeps changing his mind and asking others what they think he should do. Grow a spine; sign up for something and get on with it. Your prevarication up till this point shows that you are not the kind of confident decision-maker who can be a successful pilot. Maybe you can find work in the hangar: where there are other people you can consult with before making a decision. But please, stay out of the air if you can't commit to a course of action without seeking consensus. It makes you seem weak. Weakness is bad.

There you go. A "bad" review! You asked for it.


*burp*

[kilomike_19]

@Meatservo

I'm a comprehensive guy, so don't worry, more or less I understood what you are telling BUT you have to understand that I'm going to make a great financial expense and I want to be sure that I'm going in the good way. Moreover I'm not Canadian, I haven't never been in Canada and I have only one source of information : Internet. Definitely, I hope that you understand and thank you very much for your "rude" advice !

[cncpc]

To the OP...

I used to run one of these College programs, or an attempt at one. We worked in concert with a long established program.

I've also been an aviation entrepreneur. Started a few businesses and helped others start a few more. I have a good MBA and an ATPL and a Comm heli. In theory, that should be a hell of a combination.

In practice, it's much different if your interest is flying. The first thing you need to realize is that whether you do a business degree or get your AME license, Air Canada or Westjet is not going to give you preference as a pilot because they have it in the back of their head that it would be nice to have you come in on days off and work on revenue maximization programs or changing an engine of a 777.

Similarly, if you go to a 703 operator, you're most likely going to go to a business started by a pilot. You could have a Harvard MBA and they would not look upon you as an asset. By downplaying your qualifications, they teetertotter up their own, which may be nothing more, or less, than they've been doing the same thing for a long time. Many small operators are complete shite at effective and efficient business management, they know they are but they survive almost always because they have found a monopoly territorial niche and have a captive market. If they screw up and make costly mistakes, its not them that gets the axe, its you and sometimes their suppliers who have to make up the cashflow shortage. You by being laid off, and suppliers by being strung out and not having cash to pay their own debts.

There is a saying you can let a bomb off in a room full of pilots and never hurt a good manager. Obviously, it's not a hard and fast rule as Max Ward and...well Max Ward, showed. That would make you think there must be a great demand for pilot managers. Other than in ops management and chief piloting, that's not true, and its barely true even there.

Fixing planes is a more stable and long term better earner than most pilot jobs. There are certainly some companies that do value having an AME and pilot, but you have to remember that if you are working as an AME, some TC POIs consider that duty time, which cuts down your flight time. It's a juggle in those companies that value having both tickets.

Last year or the year before Selkirk College shut down its aviation program which was one of the longest, if not longest in Canada. People don't want to be pilots anymore and for good reason. Fair play to those who are in now and can say they have it made, but for a young guy like the OP, its a dim future.

[cncpc]

I omitted to say that while I ran the College program we rationalized the business component, or any two year college cert, by saying it showed an employer that a pilot they may take on and invest huge in at least has demonstrated the ability to stay the long course, and the intelligence to handle some upscale intellectual challenges. That's true. But two days of testing with an industrial psychologist would likely show the same thing.

[kilomike_19]

@cncpc

Yes it is. I have a dim future in front of me but someone told me a time when I forgot completely my idea of ​​being a pilot that I'll always be angry with myself if I do not follow what my heart wants. I want to become a pilot. Not an airline pilot. I don't care if I fly C172's all my life. But I want to fly. Maybe I'm going to have a lot of obstacles in my road but I think it is normal. Nothing is achieved without effort... Thanks a lot!

[billgeno]

Yes it is. I have a dim future in front of me but someone told me a time when I forgot completely my idea of ​​being a pilot that I'll always be angry with myself if I do not follow what my heart wants. I want to become a pilot. Not an airline pilot. I don't care if I fly C172's all my life. But I want to fly. Maybe I'm going to have a lot of obstacles in my road but I think it is normal. Nothing is achieved without effort... Thanks a lot!

If this is truly the case, and you have ALWAYS wanted to be a pilot, then conduct your flight training and BE A PILOT. If it does not matter what you are flying, as long as you are flying, there are plenty of options out there for you. There are a few survey and photo operations in Canada that fly single engine Cessnas and they will afford you the opportunity to travel across the country and beyond. You could become a career Flight Instructor and move up through an FTU. There are paths you can take without attempting to complete a diploma or degree program at the same time. That being said, if you have no other back up plan and few marketable skills beyond your pilot's licence, I would highly suggest that you do complete a program. The reason for that is that it can be damned hard to find your first and second job. Plus you never know what could happen to the industry tomorrow and it would be prudent to have something to fall back on.

The one place I would suggest you do your homework right now is educating yourself on how to gain the right to work in Canada. I have met a few people over the past few years who have come to Canada to conduct their flight training. Some are now having work visa issues, and others did their due diligence, and are now working.

The future is not dim, but it is what you make of it.

Bill

[kilomike_19]

@billgeno

That being said, if you have no other back up plan and few marketable skills beyond your pilot's licence, I would highly suggest that you do complete a program.

There is the problem. I have a High School Diploma and I think that it isn't enough... In addition, I belong to a family who most of my relatives have at least a college degree... Therefore , when I say them that I just want to study for the flight licenses they don't seem very convinced...

The one place I would suggest you do your homework right now is educating yourself on how to gain the right to work in Canada. I have met a few people over the past few years who have come to Canada to conduct their flight training. Some are now having work visa issues, and others did their due diligence, and are now working.

Thank you a lot for this advice ! I 'll take it very seriously , no doubt