My experience at the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Avation Exploration Summer Camp

Real World Aviation
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Let me just start with a huge hello as I am incredibly excited to share this with the IFC!

I posted something regarding my FAA medical a couple of months ago…the purpose was to go to this camp. I warn you that his is going to be a long post so o recommend that you take your time while reading it (It shall be divided into parts)

Food: All the food was free and I must that while it wasn’t Gordon Ramsay food it was still good food which I did not expect. We had breakfast at 8, lunch at 12 and dinner at 5. There were many options and there was a different menu every day. Everything from sandwiches to deli and salads was included. We even had a Starbucks stand! A soda fountain was also present in he dining room which was really spacious.

Classes: A summer camp with classes…yeah. The classes were based on aviation and we tackled different topic every day such as ATC, Hypoxia, Basic Aerodynamics, Weather and how to read METARS, Air Crash Investigation and aviation maintence! They were really fun and interesting and I would recommend to bring a notebook with you just in case as they give you a lot of valuable knowledge.

Room: The rooms were pretty basic and straightforward as they werent that amusing. The rooms consisted of two beds, a couple of outlets, two safes, a desk, a towel hanger, and a closet. They also had microwaves and a small fridge. The bathrooms were rather awkward as we had one bathroom for every 8 campers. The bathrooms consisted of two toilets and two showed which were separated by walls and a curtain. They also had like 10 cubbies for some reason.

Transportation: We basically had to walk the whole university everyday to get to different buildings which were pretty far away from each other. That isn’t that continent as our feet were constantly tired from waking around a university campus all day in scorching hot summer Florida weather.

Minor activities: We would do voluntary random activities almost all day for example basketball, volleyball, and a pool day. We went to a park, ice cream parlor, bowling alley, and laser tag center for our last day!

Scheduling: The scheduling was pretty normal and chill but some of the counselors were pretty lost which made our schedule pretty wack.

Basic day in the camp (including flying!)

I woke up at 5:00am either by my alarm or by the Incredibly loud Delta MD-88 that arrives at that hour. I bathed so early because I don’t like bathing with a bunch of dudes next to me…
we then went to breakfast and headed straight to the flight line to fly with our IP. We would then head over to another class with our counselor after the flight. Lunch was at 12:00pm and we would the continue our daily schedule. We returned to the dorms and either played UNO or did or minor activities. I picked my clothes for the next day before going to sleep. We needed to be in our dorms at at 10:00pm and lights out at 11:00pm. We had a dinner ceremony on the last day in which the flight instructors gave us a certificate.

Bonus!!! I came to the camp with hopes of finding someone that played IF…I found over 4 people hat played IF and we convinced a guy to buy it and he was like “this may just be the greatest fight sim on mobile” we even gathered around and played IF for hours while blasting avation songs. This shows that IF can really ring people together and it is also further proof that IF is the best flight sim on mobile. Hats off to the devs!

Overall opinion: The price for this camp is a staggering two thousand dollars! But it was with it as I learned a lot and gained 8 flight hours as a complete crash course on aviation and how the university functions! I also got a a one thousand dollar discount for the university! My interest for aviation has grown and so has my love for it! I recommend this camp to anyone for a career in aviation!

I hope you liked my incredibly long report!

P.S. We flew a lot and I loved that part so much that I haven’t mentioned it in this post as I will make a completely separate post just for that.
You are free to ask any questions regarding the can if you want.

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That sounds really cool! I wish I could’ve gone…
How long was it?

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It was incredibly cool, I had the time of my life! The camp was 1 week long and we flew almost every day. The first day was kind of like an introduction and he real camp started the next day. Check in was from 3:00om to 5:00pm and check out was from 9:00am to 11:00am.

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I talked with one of Emby Riddle’s representatives at an AOPA fly in in few weeks ago. It sounds like a great University, I will definitely be looking into it for future education. Great report!

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It truly is! Great choice too as I and many other people consider ERAU to be what I call “The Harvard of Aviation”.

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Just going to stop you there. With the shortage of pilots in the US, you do not and will not get any benefit of having done flight school at ERAU than any other flight school in the US. Where you studied and got your hours is the last thing airlines are looking for. Sure at airline partnered schools you get a guaranteed interview with them, but your education will not be better. In fact you may very well be spending more money to go to ERAU to get a degree (which airlines are throwing out that hiring requirement now) and your flight hours.

Personal advice from someone entering flight school training, look for a school that that gets you your hours for as cheap as you can. No need to take out hundreds of thousands to get a degree and flight hours from ERAU. With no degree required for most airlines and no US airlines requiring it soon, if you want to fly 1) Get your 1st Class medical even if you are just going to get a PPL (easier to get one in the future and less stress when you need one later), 2) Get all your licenses and ratings (PPL, IR, Multi Engine Rating, CPL, CFI), 3) build your hours up. 4) turn 21 and take your ATP exam to become an ATP. ERAU’s is advertising itself as any University does (from a former UnderGrad worker), they try to paint their program as one of the only ways and the easiest way for you to get the job you want when in reality there are far more and far better options out there.

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Thanks for the review! I am about to go to that camp in July! Thanks for letting me see what it will be like! (Just without the flying part… not old enough)

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You can fly at any age! I am 13 and they let me fly anyways.

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I will look into that and study more of it. Thanks for the advice, I truly need it!

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Sounds like fun, though, the Florida summer heat hasn’t even gotten here yet. We are just preheating right now lol.

Few questions- what’s the typical age group for this camp?

You said you’ll receive a $1000 tuition discount, have you looked up a 4 year degree from that school and it’s costs?

How long was the camp? 1 week? 2 weeks? - edit, I see you answered this already, 1 week long

How much time each day did you spend at the controls of the airplane?

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Great questions!

The typical age for this camp was around 15 years old, some were 16 and even 17! The youngest campers were 12 and 13 (me)

I don’t have a specific price but I believe it is around 60,000 dollars per semester which is quite expensive…

We flies mostly everyday except when weather didn’t allow it. I don’t want to give it to many details as I will describe them more thoroughly in my other post but basically one person would do the departure trip and the other one would do the arrival trip, we would usually fly for about 1 hour per person with touch and goes and landings.

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I went to the aviation exploration at the Prescott location next year. Just curious, did they allow you to land or take off? I had the same instructor for every flight except for our night flight which is the only time i was able to take off and land. Just curious haha. Glad you had fun, i sure did when i went!

I know this isn’t part of your question but i may be attending the Next Level Flight camp next year!

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I’ve heard some very negative things about ERAU. Some people say that the landing fees for the runways change everyday, dorms are like prisons, the food is garbage, and the lack of females are a con for many.

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Sounds like a good time. Thanks for answering the questions. May look into this in a few years to send my son too. Is 12 the youngest someone can be?

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Well actually they do! I was quite surprised to see that my instructor let me takeoff the first day we were flying! We practiced stalls and other things but I won’t be saying much as I have a post regarding that coming soon ;)

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I believe 12 is the youngest age possible in that camp as I saw nobody under the age of 12. This isn’t required but I personally think that the child should at least know a tad bit of aviation just so they don’t get lost in the classes (which were quite basic too).

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@Avgeekproductions how much does the camp itself cost?

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Well yes and no, The food isn’t all that bad, as I said it’s not restaurant food but it is acceptable (at least in my case). My only complain was that sometimes the food was a tad bit bland. I personally can’t tell you anything about the landing fees as I am not a student a d would not like to share false info. K stayed in Doolittle hall which has the oldest dorms and yes they kinda look like prisons BUT I think that is only used for summer camp students as I saw students entering some really luxurious and modern dorms. I came into not excepting many females but I was quite surprised to see that 5 out of 24 campers were females. I thought it was going to be way less but hey that’s what you get.

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The camp cost ABOUT 2,000 dollars. The price can be increased if you rented headsets and/or lost something or broke it.

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oh gosh that’s expensive