Scudrunners

College flight training is a thing that won't go away.  I get that.  I'm a product of that system and I see it certainly has some advantages, although there are also parts that aren't so hot.  Let's not get too tied up in it.

My real question is this: for all the things the colleges DO teach, how come they don't have a course on the state of the industry, planning your own progression, and how to land your first job?  Cover things like what entry level jobs are actually out there and what they require (fun fact: the King Air 200 is not so named because that's how many hours its copilot has).  Take a look at how to use your qualifications quickly and how a ramp job can be vastly different from one company to another.  Touch on what a good instructor actually has to do.  Get into the various career traps that befall low-time pilots (inescapable ground positions, even inescapable right seats) and how to plot out a rough course to your eventual flying goal.  Explore ALL end games, not just 705 widebodies.  I know some very happy CFIs and small-operator float pilots who are leading awesome lives and never want to do anything else.  You could fill a semester with this stuff.

So what gives?  Is it that it's better for business to have posters of 737s and executive turboprops hanging on the walls than it is to have pictures of well-worn 185s on floats and tired 172s or is there something else going on?

[quote] or is there something else going on?[/quote]

There is a misconception around flight training that flying the big jets is the ultimate job.

For some maybe it is, especially those who need to be hand fed and depend on set actions to get from A to B.

As to how to find a job flight schools are not in the least interested in teaching that.

That is why we have internet forums, to find out from those who have been down that road.

Chuck, I agree with all your points except the last.  Unfortunately I feel like unless you're one of the regulars, forums are good for pointed questions only.

I just figured that a lot of students pay a lot of money (have you looked at the costs of the non-subsidized university aviation courses? Jeebus.) but by and large they don't get any guidance on what to do once they walk out the door.  I know that school is out long before the radio starts over-playing that Alice Cooper song because I get guys with 206.1 hours calling, walking in on their road trips, and/or emailing three copies of their resume (one to HR, one to me, and another one to me just so I can have another look and reconsider).  I feel for these guys, most will end up ramping for a company that uses and abuses rampies or they'll become passionless instructors.  Neither helps the greater good of this flying life but they just don't know any better.

I try to help out guys in their job search when I think they're aiming too high or too low but it's not my job and I can't spend all day doing it.  I have a theory about why the colleges aren't doing anything about it that I probably won't get into, I just want to say they [i]should.[/i]

Well the first problem in preparing a new pilot for the job search for a flight school is how would they explain there are far more pilots than jobs?

Touché.

I recall sitting on the wing of a Navajo one day a number of years ago scraping the snow and ice off because my wing covers only covered up to the nacelles and thinking, "Now here's a photo they never show in the brochures...!"  It was something like -10 or with 15 kts of wind, and I didn't look at all like the smiling beautiful people with their bright white shirts and bars standing on a summer's day next to their shiny new airplanes :D

But realistically, when you walk out of a university with any degree, you haven't had any training in getting a job from them, either.

I'm amazed at the number of people that can't even write a decent cover letter....  I always feel for the guys with English as a second language who have written something about being fluent in English and then proceed to write an occasionally incomprehensible letter.  If this is you, have someone for whom English is a first letter vet your resume and cover letter before you send it

Interesting you mention writing a resume and cover letter.  I vividly remember sitting in my sixth semester English class when we were told that the entire semester would be dedicated to resume and cover letter writing techniques.  I thought to myself that if any one class could change my life it was this one and hung on to every word that was said there.  There was no help in intelligently picking a job but at least I could stand out in a big pile of resumes.

Of course, most of those around me continued with the standard attitude of, "Pfff, this is BS and a waste of time.  I already know English."

Colleges don't want to show the reality of the job market or what the reality is of the industry, they would rather blow sunshine up the asses of their students. Their product is the education, it is the same in many industries not just aviation.

Forums like this are slowly spreading the truth to new students, I think as a result not as many would be pilots are plunking down the big coin to attend these colleges or even heading to the local airport to get a licence. Just last week I went out to Boundary Bay once the 3rd busiest airport in Canada, yup just behind YYZ and YUL it was dead. I recall having to make 360 turns trying to get initial calls in to tower waiting to be cleared inbound to join the circuit behind 6 others. Last week clear skys a perfect day for everyone to be out committing aviation, hardly anyone was out flying, one guy in the practice area, another over Chilliwack doing circuits.

I thought it was odd but the contrast was obvious to me having been away for some time , these places to the unfamiliar where zoo's of training and general aviation. I look at it now and worry that aviation at its grass roots is slowly dieing from itself and government interference and taxation.

When I fly into small towns in the USA at podunk airstrips the service is night and day compared to even the big airports here in Canada, frankly the state of Canada's aviation infrastructure is embarrassing.

Why would a college open their students eyes to the realities of aviation in this country, its better for the bottom line to cash in on their dreams of flight.