Scholarship faq's

Yes. applicants can apply for multiple scholarships.

The Academy has decided not to participate in the time building phase of training candidates. The conscious effort by the BOD was made as a result of financial obligation to each student and an effort to affect more pilot participation.

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Applications are available online.

All applications will be reviewed by RFA selection board.

All training scholarships will be awarded in 6-week blocks. RFA is planning 5 sessions of 6-week blocks throughout the scholarship year.

Due to limited capacity, Applicants can request their priority sessions after successful selection, but sessions may not be guaranteed.

All training takes place at the New York Stewart International Airport and surrounding authorized training airports. Stewart is a tower-controlled airport located in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Our BOD strategic vision is to impact the lives of as many aviators as possible. In addition, the cost of training one individual from zero time to commercial license has a tremendous cost. Approximately 120 hours of the commercial license is “Time Building” and these dollars can be used towards other pilot candidates.

Scholarships will not pay for room or board. We have identified a lower cost option which will cost approximately $2500.00 double occupancy but will only be offered on a limited basis due to capacity constraints. There are several short stay hotels in the area. Airbnb and VRBO are options to be explored by candidates.

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No specific work opportunities will exist at RFA. However, we need CFI’s periodically and prefer to hire from our program participant pool.

Internships will be offered by our Partner Ambassadors throughout the year. Candidates will be vetted by the internship committe in addition to interviews by the Partner Ambassador.

At this time, we support maintenance scholarships, in partnership with Duchess Community College (DCC). The basic program is full time for 11 months.

RFA will continuously strive to create partnerships opportunities that will add to the aviation career opportunities. As they become available, RFA will make announcements on an ongoing basis. We are currently working on programs for Safety and Dispatcher.

Scholarship students will have to have taken and passed the written exam for the scholarships they receive. A passing grade of 85% will be required to receive the scholarship offer. Note: a checklist will be provided for scholarship winners.

Yes. Required prior to program entry.

There will be six week blocks of training, the type of training within the block can be any of the offerings (i.e., instrument, commercial and private can be ongoing with different students during the 6-week block).

Yes. The scholarship is now based on 55 Flying Hours for the Private Pilot scholarship and 45 Flying Hours for the Instrument program. Note 1: the 40 hours referenced in the question is the FAA minimum and not the national average. Note 2: the scholarship also covers the required ground training specified by our syllabus.

No. This fee will be the responsibility of the scholarship winner. Assuming the scholarship winner has not exceeded the scholarship budget, RFA will provide the required aircraft for the check ride.

We are not  in the housing business this year, however if the students want to stay at the preferred hotel to get our preferred rate of $99, then they would have to commit to $2100 for the 6-week block regardless of how long in the rooms (no pro ration), provided a double occupancy partner is available.

Yes, all of the above. iPads, uniform, meals (Breakfast at Homewood included), incidentals. Travel within 5 miles is provided by hotel.

The most they would fly in one day is 2, 3-hour blocks of lessons (6 hours). Ground school in combination with a flight lesson. As always, this would depend on the weather conditions.

The hours set forward in the scholarships is maximum time offered by RFA in airplane. By FAA regulations, the private pilot can use a max of 2.5 hours, for the Commercial, they can use a maximum of 50 hours of the required 250. For the instrument, it may be up to 20 hours. This FAA maximum does not prevent our scholarship students from practicing in our full motion simulator for skill building (instructor rates apply).