As discussed elsewhere, the latest story is they are disallowing CFI students who will not work for them as CFIs afterwards.
de727ups said what I would say about ATP except that you can fail the checkride. I saw it happen and the checkrides are not at all aimed at ATP applicants. The difference is, ATP sets up multiple checkrides a week and they simply know what is on the test and teach to it without a hint of shame. I have no problem with that, but be warned that many flight schools do not hire ATP-trained CFI's because they know all too well that ATP railroads its students through their checkrides and such persons are not certified to be capable. To use a gauche analogy, the girl you went home with on Friday is not as pretty on Monday. ATP makes people able to sort of shine for a few hours, but does not make them into scholars or experts. The saving grace is that starting out as a CFI requires neither of these qualifications.
Last edited by Cubdriver; 08-10-2007 at 02:24 PM.