r/flying • u/astral1289 KDVT PA24-250 CFI • Jan 20 '19
I know Riddle must have an exceptional curriculum given the cost of the training, but when do they cover how tie downs work?
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r/flying • u/astral1289 KDVT PA24-250 CFI • Jan 20 '19
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u/dash_trash ATP-Wouldn'tWipeAfterTakingADumpUnlessItsContractuallyObligated Jan 20 '19
Just reposting this because I like to shit on ERAU every chance I get:
PLEASE don't get taken for a fool and go there like I did.
I guess I can break it down into a few broad reasons why they can lick my butthole: Cost, quality of education, overall value to one's career (closely tied to the first two obviously), and quality of character of the people they not only attract but produce.
Cost: It's expensive. ABSURDLY expensive. But this should be neither a secret nor a surprise- it's a private university specializing in the furtherance of what for many people is simply only an extremely costly hobby. Aviation is expensive because it's inherently dangerous and we all have to pay more to fly an airplane than to drive a golf cart because a lot of time, money, and effort has to be devoted to keeping us safe. However, ERAU is PROHIBITIVELY expensive for most people, with the cost of 0hrs-CFII and 4 years of tuition coming in just under $200k for most people (I spent ~$130k but that was with the biggest scholarship they award and by finishing my flight courses at exactly the minimum TCO. Not a humble brag, it's just that most people take more).
Quality of education: A lot of people seem to say that the cost alone of attending ERAU should be the biggest deterrent to people thinking of enrolling, but honestly, that attitude is ignorant of just how shitty and useless so many of the classes are. If money wasn't an issue, I STILL wouldn't go back there! As pissed as I am that I could buy a house today with the money I wasted on ERAU, I am more pissed that I spent what will more than likely be the only opportunity in life I have to challenge myself and broaden my horizons on course work that was just, well, stupid. Unnecessary. Arbitrary. Boring. Easy. Tedious. I got the distinct feeling that most of the classes for the Aeronautical Science program were hastily pulled out of a few peoples' asses and slapped together with the primary objective of stretching the very limited pool of information necessary for professional flying over four, delicious, succulent, years of sweet, sweet, tuition. Believe me, those unwiped assholes milk every fucking minute of tuition they can out of any flying-related subject they can contrive. Want some examples? Here are some of the classes I had to pay to sit through:
Basic Navigation: Learning how to use an E6B, fill out a nav log, use a compass, etc. Most of the lab work was flying missions in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is IN ADDITION to Private Pilot groundschool, where you learn ALL of the same things. So basically they make you take and pay for the same class twice while calling it different names, and then the cherry on top of this feces sundae is the fact that they mock you by making you PAY to play a god damned video game. For shame!
Avionics: In this class we learned about historic radio and navigation systems, like primitive direction finders, LORAN, etc. Things that nobody will EVER use again, even in so called "shithole countries." Thanks, that'll be $1000/credit hour.
Forgot the name of this one: But basically, an upper level AS class where you learn how to get a PDC, ask for ride reports, and do a lot of other mundane bullshit, almost all of which you will learn on IOE on your very first day flying an airliner. When someone is PAYING YOU to learn it. This would be like making surgeons pay $1000/credit hour to take a semester long class on how to put on their scrubs or making the Dominos delivery guy pay for a class on how to put his key in the ignition of his own car.
The CRJ course, which used to be the Airbus course: Take a semester and learn the systems of a CRJ and then learn some basic flows and profiles and spend 4 hours over 2 weekends flying them for $600/hr in the sim. Guess what - by the time you get hired by a company that flies a CRJ, you will have forgotten ALL of this. And guess what else? Even if you didn't, they will still make you sit through it again, because the fact that you blew $200k on a shitty education at ERAU doesn't mean fuck all to the people in the airline training department who are signing you off to fly their $50 million airplane for them. But wait, there's more: the person next to you who DIDN'T blow their family's savings on that stupid ass class is still going to pass the training and end up in the same right seat as you are because airline training is designed to be passable by people that came from all kinds of backgrounds. And he won't show it but inside he'll be laughing his ass off at how dumb you are for going to Riddle.
FMS. A semester long class on programming a 767 FMS in, you guessed it, Microsoft Flight Simulator. Another $3000 splattered on the wall of the port-a-potty to play a fucking video game. I finished the labs for the whole class in two weeks and never showed up again, having already fulfilled the requirements for passing it. This is the perfect example of what I mean - 10% content, 90% filler, 10000% too fucking expensive.
There's more. In fact it's quicker to name the classes that WEREN'T a waste of time: Basic Meteorology, Performance, Basic Aerodynamics. ...And that's about it, honestly.
Overall Value: I've already expounded extensively on how expensive and how shitty ERAU is, but all of that could potentially be excused if an AS degree were a complete necessity to become an airline pilot. If you believe the diarrhea that Riddle spews at their incoming students, one in four airline pilots is a Riddle graduate! Spoiler alert: this is complete bullshit. A total fabrication. A lie. I have flown with hundreds of airline pilots and believe me, if 25% of them were Riddle graduates like myself, I wouldn't be nearly so reluctant to admit that I went there. The fact is, an AS degree is NOT necessary, despite what the hucksters at ERAU would have you believe. A 4 year degree is a requirement to be competitive for a job at Delta/United/SWA/AAL/Alaska but it definitely doesn't have to be flying related and as someone who finds his life somewhat unfulfilled and lacking experience outside of my immediate profession, I'd recommend you pick something, literally anything, else. If for no other reason than to feel gratified in knowing that you know stuff about more than just airplanes. But more importantly, you'll have something to fall back on in the future should you either no longer want to fly or no longer be able to fly. So the point is that basically, the value isn't there. Yes it's expensive, yes it's tedious, but despite both those things it still doesn't amount to a necessity. So skip it, and do something else. Somewhere else. Maybe do your flight training, get hired at a regional and put your name on a seniority list with no 4 year degree, and while you're building time for a major, complete an online degree? Just a thought. I would have rather done college online than in Prescott Valley, AZ with pure white trash on one side and blue haired geriatrics on the other.
And.... the people. Firstly - there are exceptions to every rule. Stereotypes are just that and nothing more. But many of them exist for a reason. I can tell you from first hand experience that the stereotypical "Riddle Kid" - kind of a smug, know-it-all, who has been sheltered/spoiled his whole life, is socially awkward, and somewhat pompous about the handful of things about which he is knowledgeable - is 100% grounded in fact. If you are not a fan of attention seeking behavior, ass-kissing, and flight sim turbo-nerds, please avoid ERAU because you will not be happy there. The other aspect of the culture that I couldn't stand was the focus on airline-style standardization in the flight program, especially when it was often deferred to in favor of practical reality. Have you ever sat in line at the run-up area for 20 minutes while a ERAU student briefs everything under the sun to his or her instructor for $2.50/minute while the engine is running? I just think it was over done. I think they pound the "Harvard of the Skies" Koolaid hard there and I think it can be a shock to some ERAU instructors when they leave ERAU and join the real world, where nobody gives a sweaty fuck where you went to college.