Career Pilot Program
In most helicopter flight
schools, their intent is to turn their students into flight instructors. Although this is a valuable tool in
obtaining early employment with low total hours, most students want to, in as
short a time as possible, become marketable as a true commercial pilot.
Our goal, at Brazos
Helicopters, is not to just make you a flight instructor, but to provide you
with the skills, experience, attitude, and knowledge of the industry that
operators so desperately seek. These
same operators find that many of their new hires have very limited practical
knowledge and marginal flying abilities, which hinder their job performance. At Brazos we insist that our students
leave our school, whether as Private Pilots or Certified Flight Instructors,
flying like and thinking like professionals.
Each and every flight situation is a different problem to solve, and only
teaching the basics with “cookie cutter” training does not give the pilot
enough experience base to be of value to a commercial operator. While FAA practical test standards must be followed in order
to complete the requirements for each rating, we also include different forms
and theories of maneuvers, which allow the pilot to tailor each maneuver to the
situation at hand, while in the field as a commercial pilot. All training is based and backed up by
how things are really done in the helicopter industry. We are able to do this due to of years of experience in
working as pilots on the jobs the student may be interested in pursuing.
Our Career Pilot Program is not based on hype, glitz, show, and unnecessary training presented by other Career Schools. It does, however provide the best possible practical training that can be had and is based on many years of operating aircraft in "real" helicopter environments. We do not "guarantee" jobs at Brazos upon completion as we are not adding tens of locations per year just to take over the largest market share of the training business. Be fully aware that no school can offer 100% industry or 100% in-house placement of students. If we did, the quality of our flight instruction would suffer tremendously and would be at best mediocre. Brazos does hire our own graduates based on performance and aptitude and as instructor positions open. We will provide as much aid in obtaining employment, for our graduates, as we can, using the large numbers of contacts we have in the industry.
The Career Pilot Program
is based on concurrent training methods, which are quite simple and
straightforward. During the Private Pilot phase of training, commercial levels
of performance are met. This gives
each student a firm foundation of flying skills to build on. Since the student is able now to handle
the helicopter with little effort, more varied kinds of training are introduced
during the Commercial phase of training. While
honing commercial skills and techniques, the Instrument, Flight Instructor, and
Flight Instructor Instrument requirements are being met. When the total time for the Commercial
Pilot license are met, the student should be able to test for the Certified
Flight Instructor and Certified Flight Instructor Instrument just after the
Commercial practical test is passed. This
is how we can offer the Career Pilot package many thousands of dollars under
other schools that provide training for each license in individual packages.
The Career Pilot Program can be completed in less than a year in most cases. Even coupled to the Utah Valley University Global Aviation Degree program, the Career Pilot Program can be done, depending on the student's schedule, in the same amount of time. If you continue to enroll in classes aimed toward a Bachelor of Science Aviation degree through UVU's Global Aviation Degree program, you can potentially delay the start of payoff of student loans for up to 54 months. This is a true advantage over other programs and will allow you to have a good salary in place before the payback of student loans. Not only do you get the benefit of extending payoff, but you end up with a true 4 year degree that will set you ahead of job applicants.
Copyright 2004, Brazos Helicopters, LLC