Here are the facts, new pilots make a very good living now. A first year regional jet first officer at Endeavor Airlines can expect to make $60,000 – $65,000 during year one depending upon how many hours they work. Don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself at what most of us in the industry consider the gold standard website for airline pilot pay information: https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/regional/endeavor_air

That same pilot will earn more annually until upgrading to Captain inside of 2 years, where it would be normal to see $90K in that first year after upgrade. Of course, after a few years you could opt to move on to a mainline or low cost carrier like jetBlue, make approximately 88K year one and well over 100K year two and work your way towards 200K + over the course of your career. Again, don’t take our word for it: https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/major-national-lcc/jetblue_airways. Go down to the Pay calculator, select the pay rate for the year the pilot is with the company, select 85 hours or so of credit time (the amount of flight time that you might expect per month), move the bid periods to 12 (a full year) and leave the percentage at 1. If you work overtime, you can make substantially more, if you prefer not to work much, you’ll earn less. You do have a great deal of control over the amount of time you work…especially as you become more senior with the company.

So how does that compare to graduating with a 4 year degree and then heading right to work? Turns out, it compares quite favorably: https://www.thebalance.com/college-graduate-salaries-expectations-vs-reality-4142305 – and the rate of increase in salary at the airlines is stable, requires no negotiations on your behalf, and is substantial & predictable. That said, having a degree can be very important with regards to getting that career job at airlines like Delta and United, but regional airlines do not require a degree. In fact, we know of many pilots working at the regional airlines earning valuable jet experience while finishing degrees they started earlier online. Many of those pilots are now flying the jets that you fly on worldwide. Are you ready to join them up front?

Give us a call at 845-457-4188 to learn more about our Professional Pilot Training Program and available financing https://www.takeflightoc.com/professional-pilot-financing/ .

We’re ready to help you launch your future!

The post So does it PAY to become a Professional Pilot? Short Answer – It does now! first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.

If there’s one question we get all the time, it is this:

What makes Take Flight Aviation so different from the rest of the flight schools in the country?

The answer is more than new planes and a nice lobby (but they don’t hurt).

Several years ago Take Flight’s leadership set some forth some very basic rules for operation that we operate from.

They are:

1) All phone calls and emails get returned within 24 hours if at all possible.

2) We will only employ CFI’s who are competent teachers who consistently display a love for what they do…and do it well.

3) We advertise real pricing in our estimates – not bare minimums. Our prices will always represent a great value.

4) We would not assign one instructor to a client, leaving that client dependent on one instructor and feeling lost if that instructor should move on; when a team teaching method leads to a more well -rounded pilot who completes the training faster.

5) We are in it to build the next generation of qualified pilot – not make the quick buck.

6) Our communication both internally and externally is very open, and requires client interaction (much like learning to fly does).

7) We operate at an airport with nearly zero wait times for takeoff.

8) We have one on one ground training as well as home study assignments – ensuing that our clients knowledge base is as expansive and refined as their flight skills – leading to above average pass rates and safe pilots.

9) Our aircraft maintenance is held to the highest standards.

10) Our Management, Support, Maintenance and Instructional staff treats every client with the dignity and respect that they, as a client, deserve.

All of these basic rules of operation represent the various facets of proper customer service – the hallmark of Take Flight Aviation. This is what makes Take Flight Aviation different from the rest – it’s also what allows us to be one of 5 aviation businesses ever to receive the AOPA President’s Choice Award for significant contribution to the flight training industry and a slew of other awards over the years.

Take Flight Aviation is your flight school – the organization that stands ready and able to make your dreams of flight a reality.

Give us a call and let us help you reach your goal in the sky.

The post The Take Flight Difference first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.

Best of all, we offer this training in two ways – Part 61 training, which allows for maximum scheduling flexibility for those who train once or twice a week and Part 141 academy style training; which allows for intensive accelerated training for those who want to get the License quickly.

Instrument Rating Training: Offered exclusively in our fleet of Garmin G1000 glass cockpit equipped Diamond DA40’s, we have extremely refined programs offered in both Part 61 and Part 141 styles for the Instrument and Commercial Single engine ratings and licenses. Part 141 Instrument clients not only can move through the program quickly, but are permitted to get the Instrument Rating without having the earn the 50 hours of cross country Pilot In Command time required under Part 61 regulations.

Commercial Pilot’s License Training: Our Commercial License Training comes in two variation under Part 61 depending upon your experience coming into the program as well as one of the most unique and efficient Part 141 Programs we’ve even seen (we wrote it to eliminate the shortcomings we saw in all of the other programs we had researched).

Multi Engine Training: A very unique aspect of our Commercial Part 141 Program is that it offers training in our State of the Art Diamond DA42NG twin engine aircraft. That said; you don’t have to be enrolled in any of our 141 Academy classes to enjoy that training…..we also offer the same multi engine training through our standalone Part 61 Multi Engine Private, and Multi Engine Commercial add on or Initial Commercial rating programs.

Professional Pilot Training Program: Clients looking to enter a career in the cockpit can take the entire list of Programs mentioned above in our Part 141 Professional Pilot Training course. In fact, this course also incorporates our Part 61 Flight Instructor, Instrument Instructor and Multi Engine Instructor programs into one cohesive and thorough program that prepares you for a job as a Certified Flight Instructor. There is an acute pilot shortage right now and Flight Instructors are extremely employable. In fact, we hire most of the Instructors we build in this program.

Take Flight Aviation is fortunate to work with numerous FAA Designated Examiners, meaning we don’t experience the delays often found at other flight schools – which simply enhances the efficiency of your training. Give us a call to learn more or reserve time to get your dreams off the ground!

If you’re as serious about flying as we are – give us a call.
Take Flight Aviation can make it happen for you!

The post Interested in Flying as a Hobby or Career? Take Flight has the courses to get you there! first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.

We know that there are a number of flight schools that you might be considering to train from zero time to Commercial Pilot. In fact, we probably know who they are…and what they offer. It’s for that reason we can say with confidence…and our staff will attest to this (just ask anyone on the team), that Take Flight offers the best, most well rounded, real world based and rewarding flight training and employment in the flight training business. Here’s why:

It starts with our programs. All professionally oriented pilots starting with zero time enter our accelerated Part 141 Programs. We built these programs in house over the course of years to not only meet FAA requirements, but to exceed them. Our goal from the start was to build pilots capable of becoming the type of Flight Instructors that we would hire. The type of pilot that we knew full well would be very successful in their career, particularly while going through airline or corporate flight training.

The way we did this was to assemble a staff that could bring the backgrounds necessary to create and deploy our programs. Our management team consists of a former commercial airline pilot with years of experience in the flight school business, as well as the cooperate charter market, an ex-military-cooperate executive and a former FAA inspector. Collectively we felt that offering the same one size fits all training that everyone else offered wasn’t going to be good enough.

Imagine earning all of your licenses and ratings over the course of about a year…training full time at Take Flight. You finish up on a Tuesday and the following Wednesday you return for your first day of company paid training. Inside of a week you are flying with your first students, well prepared and training in the exact same aircraft, over the same airspace that you learned to fly in. The same people who taught you to fly are now supporting your professional growth – there to answer any questions you might have.

Professionally we wanted to build a positive learning environment from day one as a student right through an instructor’s course of employment as a Flight Instructor.  At Take Flight Aviation, you are a Professional Pilot – you don’t wash planes, answer phones or book lessons. Your task is to provide the absolute best flight training experience available anywhere – period. You make training fun, rewarding, real world oriented and most of all, safe. You’ll be among the best paid Instructor pilots in the region. You can enjoy the benefits of Take Flight’s career progression program, helping you earn your CFII (Instrument Instructor) and MEI (Multi Engine Instructor) ratings along the way. Need to meet ATP requirements for the airlines? No worries – our Instructors can easily fly 750 hours + per year. As a Take Flight Instructor, you’ll refine your Instrument Skills flying IFR in real instrument meteorological conditions in aircraft that are capable of such operations. Need multi engine time – no worries, you’ll be earning that as well. You will use training material that emulates the material you’ll find later in airline and corporate training programs. You’ll build your professional network by meeting with airline and corporate pilots who will help prepare you for the career road ahead. Take Flight ensures that you will be ready for the rest of your career….just as we have for the many pilots who have come before you.

Shop it around and you’ll find that these offerings are far from the norm at other flight schools. We know because we’ve done it ourselves. In fact, we get calls and emails from Flight Instructors all the time who want to work with us. They don’t like the hours, being on call constantly, the low pay, or having to work as receptionists or aircraft washer when they aren’t flying – and we don’t blame them! In fact, that’s why we never ask those things of the pilots on our team.

Whether it’s earning a CFI, going from zero time to CFI or anything in between, Take Flight Aviation focuses on our customers as we seek to provide them the best flight training in the business. There’s no better way to hire the best than to hire the professionals that you train yourself. If you’re interested in making the rest of your career fun, rewarding and much smoother then it can be any other way – give Take Flight Aviation a call. We’re ready when you are.

The post We offer you a career path and your first job as a pilot! first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.

The meaning of these awards for you, our clients, or prospective clients, is clear – every minute of your time and dollar you spend at Take Flight goes further towards not only getting you the pilot’s licenses and ratings you desire, but towards building you into a truly valuable member of the aviation community! Here’s how that happens:

If you’re looking to fly for leisure, it’s very likely that you’ll earn a Private Pilot’s License and likely an Instrument Rating and that might be the end of your formal training, with the exceptions of aircraft check outs and a Flight Review every two years. At Take Flight, we focus your training not only in the practice area and airport traffic pattern, but also away from the airport, taking the types of trips you are likely to use the aircraft for after training.

Take Flight Aviation focuses on developing real world flying skills from lesson one. We have YOU planning the trips, introduce real world scenario based training and challenge you to fly to locations that develop your skills and build the confidence to USE that license for years to come…the way you wanted to. When it comes to Instrument Training, we focus on getting you flying in real world Instrument Conditions, in some of the busiest airspace in America. Anyone who has learned to fly in the NY airspace in Instrument Meteorological Conditions with our highly refined programs and state of the art equipment has the confidence to go where they want to go…safely.

Those who come to Take Flight Aviation to launch their careers (and we launch a lot of careers), expect efficient training and a fine attention to detail. What they often are surprised at is that Take Flight prepares them not only to become adept pilots, but also to operate successfully in the professional aviation environment.

Our programs and documents (both Part 61 and those in our Accelerated Part 141 program) are designed to emulate those that they will see later in their careers. In fact, our FAA Approved Flight Operations Manual is designed to be very similar to the General Operations Manual that all Corporate, Charter and Airline Operators use. Further, our training programs are designed to be very similar to the training program that professional pilots use later in their careers, both in substance and delivery. Coupled with very high training standards and recurrent testing, we’ve found that our students have zero problems getting through their initial Corporate, Charter and Airline training later on.

Of course, in today’s world, earning a CFI (Certified Flight Instructor Rating) is really the best way to build time and refine your skills….it’s also the hardest rating to earn, with national first time CFI’s failing nearly 50% for their FAA Practical Exams on the first attempt. Take Flight has spent the time and money to build a CFI program that not only has a pass rate that’s head and shoulders above the national average, but has also built some of the best CFI’s working in the region. Our CFI program is designed around you….and we know that every single person who walks through our doors has a different starting point when it comes to their native ability to convey information. We frequently hire our graduates, and with good reason – they simply are better than anyone else we interview (and we interview a LOT of CFI’s every year). Great CFI’s build great pilots, and great pilots make great members of the aviation community.

We, as an industry, need the next generation of aviation community ambassadors. Take Flight Aviation offers you the challenge to become the next person to pass aviation along to their friends and family. Whether your goal is to fly with your family and friends for fun, or fly a 777 full of passengers overseas, it all starts with one call. Are you ready? We are, and await your call!!

The post We have had a great few years… but what does this mean to you? first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.

Take Flight Aviation LLC now offers complete Part 141 Accelerated Professional Pilot Training in addition to our well known Part 61 offerings. Take Flight Aviation, having recently received our Part 141 Commercial Pilot Certification Program approval from the FAA, is now certified to offer Part 141 Accelerated training for the Private, Instrument and Commercial Single Engine Land Certifications.

Our recently approved Part 141 Commercial Program has FAA Approval to provide 12 hours of Instrument training in our Diamond DA42 Advanced Multi Engine Aircraft. This training prepares our clients to complete a Part 61 Commercial Multi Engine Add On rating Practical Exam after the Part 141 Single Engine Practical Exam is successfully completed. What does this mean to you? You receive more training in less time with no unstructured time building hours.

Call Take Flight Aviation for more information on both our Part 61 and Part 141 Accelerated Programs!

The post Now offers complete Part 141 Accelerated Professional Pilot Training in addition to our well known Part 61 offerings. first appeared on Take Flight Aviation.