Careers soar at aviation school

CD · Post by CD » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:36 pm

Careers soar at aviation school\ The cost of Seneca's four-year program runs to about $40,000 -- but the job market for pilots has hardly looked better

THE TORONTO SUN
06/27/2007

Asked if he's had any hairy moments during his time in the air, Dean Sela, 22, calmly remembers he was flying a small Cessna with his sister in the passenger seat when the plane experienced almost full engine failure, a highly unusual occurrence, but no less unnerving for that.

Still, Sela landed safely, then hopped into another plane the flying school he worked for wanted delivered to another airfield. Something like the incident in the Cessna is a bit like learning to ride a horse, Sela says: if you fall off you get back on and try again.

Sela is one of 40 or so students a year who graduate from Seneca College's aviation program, which began when the school opened in 1968 and has since put hundreds of commercial pilots in thousands of cockpits.

Dominic Totino, director of maintenance, aviation and flight technology at Seneca, says the college takes 80 students a year into its Bachelor of Applied Flight Technology program, half of them straight from high school. On average, about 10% to 30% of the students are female.

Being accepted into the program doesn't mean a student will graduate, Totino cautions. About 50 to 55 students make it through first year, then flight training in subsequent years weeds out another 10 to 15.

"The first year (of the program) is very similar to the first year of a science and engineering course," Totino says.

High school graduation is a requirement to get into the program, and applicants need Grade 12 credits in calculus, math, physics, chemistry and English. That's because Seneca doesn't just teach these students how to fly, it also trains them on how the aircraft works.

Flight training starts in second year. The college has 14 planes of its own and four simulators. The simulators are cockpit-specific, so there's one for a Cessna 172, the first plane the students fly, another for a Beechcraft Bonanza and a third for a Beechcraft Baron, the multi-engine plane students graduate on. The fourth simulator is for the Canada Regional Jet, a 60-passenger plane that requires two pilots to fly it, and is used for Seneca's jet transition program, which Sela is completing now.

LOG FLYING HOURS

At the end of their four years students are qualified to fly commercially, but to obtain an air transportation pilot's licence they still need to log a certain number of flying hours and pass exams on large aircraft and the weather. Airlines that hire new pilots train to fly specific aircraft.

The cost of the four-year program runs to about $40,000. That might seem like a lot of money, but the job market for pilots has hardly looked better. Totino says airlines in Europe and Asia are hiring, and North America needs 17,000 pilots a year, some of them are here at home. "Air Canada is looking at hiring about 400 pilots a year," Totino says.

A First Officer just starting out will earn about $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and after 10 years will pull in more than $100,000. Top drawer captains with lots of seniority and experience can expect to earn twice that.

As for Sela, he says he'll start looking for a job in early summer. He should be successful: he's had a private pilot's licence since he was 17 -- before he was able to drive a car.

Ralliart · Post by **Ralliart** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:03 pm

A First Officer just starting out will earn about $40,000 to $50,000 a year

WTF

. ._ · Post by **. ._** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:50 pm

I'm fucking speechless.

twotter · Post by **twotter** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:50 am

Typical Rah Rah from the schools.. that's how they recruit..

If the real story was told, nobody would want to waste that much money on a maybe industry..

Elessar_44 · Post by **Elessar_44** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:19 am

Thanks for the laugh!

Luis · Post by **Luis** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:26 am

I think this Sela guy has been hired by Jazz though, almost 40K...

Jeppesen · Post by **Jeppesen** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:58 pm

more news for you to enjoy

News release for Seneca College Aviation Program

Seneca College is pleased to announce that it’s Aviation and Flight Technology Degree Program received the first approval in Canada by Transport Canada April 25th to run an Integrated Airline Transport Pilot Program (IATP) as part of its Bachelor of Applied Technology Degree in Aviation. This change in program gives credit to the graduate students toward the Airline Transport Pilot licence and provides the students with training that will get them ready to fly a multi crew aircraft used by the airlines. With the pilot shortage that is happening in the aviation industry, this program will help students be prepared to enter into a direct entry position as a first officer in an airline environment. Airlines have been recruiting pilots directly from programs such as ours in the United States and Europe for a long time and hopefully this will start happen here in Canada soon. In addition to all the requirements to hold a commercial pilots licence, students receive a jet transition program which gives them experience in an high altitude flying environment, multicrew training and operation of a jet aircraft. Seneca is striving to be a leader in pilot training education in Canada

Seneca College is also please to announce being the first Canadian institution to receive accreditation of it Aviation and Flight Technology degree program this past February by the Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI)
AABI is a not-for-profit organization consisting of educational institutions, corporations, practitioners, trade organizations and members of the public-at-large. AABI is officially recognized as a specialized accrediting body by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, USA, AABI has its international office in Montreal, Canada, near the seat of such international aviation organizations as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).For more information, visit AABI’s website at http://www.aabi.aero.
To achieve accreditation, aviation programs must satisfy the expectations of a wide range of quality standards relating to strategic management of resources, interactions of faculty and students in the educational process and achievement of learning goals in degree
programs. During the accreditation process, the programs are visited and evaluated by academic and industry representatives with detailed knowledge of aviation education, applying accreditation standards that are widely accepted in the educational community.

AABI press release stated, as the first college in Ontario, Canada, to offer bachelor degree studies, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto continues to transform the education landscape of the province. The degree programs were created specifically to educate students for high growth industries, and the Bachelor of Applied Technology (flight program) is no exception. The program is ideally positioned to meet the future requirements of the Canadian and global aerospace industry by graduating technically competent future managers and leaders. “The [accreditation] visit provided a valuable opportunity for sharing of information and ideas; it is indeed a powerful experience to be assessed by your peers. The academic integrity of our applied degree offerings is critical to us, and we therefore value AABI’s acknowledgement of the quality of the program,” said Dr. Rick Miner, president of Seneca College.

source: http://aviation.senecac.on.ca/index.php?pid=0

Kelowna Pilot · Post by **Kelowna Pilot** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:14 pm

I like the way Seneca is trying to push Canadian aviation out of the 3rd world standards that have traditionally characterized it...

But are they really so desperate for students they have to resort to these kinds of tactics?

I don't care if they make themselves look like a bunch of shameless used car salesmen... that's their problem..... the problem is they make everyone in the flight training industry look bad.

Believe it or not, there are some schools out there who do not feel they have hit you up with highly misleading information to get you to sign up...

saucer_driver · Post by **saucer_driver** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:39 pm

What a Joke.....these boys and girls are being set up to get screwed eventually.

well at least Cameron air will have a steady stream of idiots to hire in place of the current lot.

sky's the limit · Post by **sky's the limit** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:05 pm

Ralliart wrote:
A First Officer just starting out will earn about $40,000 to $50,000 a year
WTF

I'm fairly certain they added a zero somewhere along the line.....

stl

Krashman · Post by **Krashman** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:57 am

I love it!
This is some great stuff!

40k for the four year course? holy crap thats cheap compared to some of the other colleges... I'm the product of a 4year program and the total bill a few years ago for me was about 65k.

Two years working in the industry... I've just about grossed about 65 but I sure as hell don't make 40k a year!

60N · Post by **60N** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:50 am

Wow, 40K-50K. Were do I sign up? I think if you add my salary and the guys sitting next to me then maybe we make about 75K. That is also equiviant to about 20 years of flying experience. Don't forget that these Seneca guys aren't even paying the 40K themselves as the Ontario govt picks up that tab. Unlike most of us who had to do pay our own way. Someone should tell these kids the truth, then if they still want to fly, great but don't blow smoke up their behinds. Must be a real shock when you are told you are the cream of the crop and then find yourself pumping floats at some northern float fishing operation swatting deer flies and building outhouses when you aren't pumping those floats, like the rest of us.

Careers soar at aviation school - Seneca

Careers soar at aviation school - Seneca