Originally Posted by
LTdan
I would highly recommend NOT going to ATP. If you do go, you'll be trained by a 90 day zero to hero instructor, who was taught by another 90 day instructor. I was not a student there thankfully but in my experience with ATP, the experience and knowledge of the instructors is weak. They train for checkrides so don't expect any above and beyond knowledge. Also, they are not customer oriented. ATP cares about your money and that's it. They do not care about your training experience.
The airline partnerships are pointless, every regional in the country is clamoring for pilots. Any pilot with the hours and the certs can get a job. No one will be impressed because you have ATP on your resume. Just the opposite is more likely.
For retired military, look for a 141 school where you can use your benefits to pay for your training.
I flew with ATP, and I agree with what you have said. You will fly nice airplanes (most are all glass cockpits with dual G430's, G500's/G1000's, TIS, RAIM, WAAS, and nice leather interiors) and you will enjoy the flying part; most of the time. The part about baby instructor instructing baby students is right on. My little sister went to ATP too. I don't want to throw names out there, but if anyone wants to know more details send me a PM. The CFI's for the most part DONT CARE ABOUT YOU, just your hours. They will tell you to your face, "YOU'RE JUST HOURS TO ME!" Naturally, but I mean the customer pays a lot for the course and the least you can do is actually care about their success Now, there are some really great CFI's at ATP, and usually those are the ones who are ending their time at ATP as a CFI.
I have seen some really low things take place at ATP, and I have friends who were done the same way. Cant say every location or CFI is the same way, but what I can tell you is that they are money oriented. They will be your buddy until your last payment (4 or 5 payments of like $12,500 or $15,000 or something like that) is made, and then you better walk the straight and narrow like your life depends upon it. They will look at everything to try and kick you out to make room for the next contestant.
Overall it was fun, I enjoyed a good bit of it, but it's hard when you get re assigned CFI's frequently and they all teach differently (even though they went to "stands" or AKA standardization school) and so you deal with little things like that.
I enjoyed ATP aside from the BS that comes with the CFI's who think they know it all as they now have a CFI and you don't. Don't trust anyone up there, as they will backstab you in a heartbeat if it will help them. When they say jump, you better jump. When they say do something, you better do it. They will charge you a late a fee or this fee and that fee as the CFI's get money out of it.
I really mean I liked ATP, I was proud to be with ATP....right up to the point where they backstabbed a few of my friends as well as my sibling and I. They don't mess around, and they bark out orders and expect it to be done. You have online videos and quizzes to do, you have to memorize their training supplements to a T, and you have to complete the sims. LIKE COLLEGE, YOU DONT NEED TO PAY MONEY TO PARTY. YOU WANT TO PARTY, DO SO WITHOUT TAKING ON A HUGE FINICAL OBLIGATION. With that said, have fun, and good luck!
One of the CFI's I had got hired at Envoy with 300 hours TT, which is way ahead of when most CFI's at ATP go in for an interview of around 500 hours TT. I am not sure if it was because he was an ATP CFI or not, but take it for what it is. Other CFI's I had would get calls from all types of regionals wanting them to interview. So you do get called, which is cool. Anyways, I will share more specific incidences if anyone wants to know more, just PM me.
Hope this helps.