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Old 10-29-2017, 10:33 AM
  #19  
CameronA
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Joined APC: May 2017
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I went to American Flyers at ADS to earn my CFI over the summer. Great program, and they produce good pilots through their structured (if very expensive) program. Almost all the instructors are Gold Seal, and all except one of the instructors I met there went through the same CFI academy I did at American Flyers. First time pass rates are above 90% for PPL and IR, and CFI pass rates hover around 80%. My class month had a 70% first-time pass rate; the decrease was probably due to my class being the largest they've ever had and we stretched their resources a bit thin on us. This suggests to me that at the very least, the CFI academy is effective at producing CFIs capable of instructing to the ACS standard examiners are looking for due to the pass rates and the fact the CFIs with those pass rates are from the academy.

While I was at AF, I met two multi-CPL graduates from ATP. They both came to American Flyers because the CFI program at ATP was ineffective at preparing its applicants for their checkrides (one of my friends quoted his former instructor at ATP saying that "he'd be lucky if 1/3rd of the CFI-A applicants would pass the first time around"). They both had several stories to tell of people who made it through who rote memorized the material and lacked basic piloting skills yet still managed to pass checkrides. They also both experienced variety in instructional quality; some instructors were great and inspiring at ATP, others were unapologetically there for the hours. They showed me the ATP ground school app they were supposed to use for learning and talked about how they were expected to self study to completion. It's supposed to reduce the amount of ground instruction done by instructors, but for most of their students it was difficult to stay motivated and on track. They both agreed ATP can be a great program if you're really good at self studying. Both also went from 0 hours to multi-CPL within 14 months. My sample size of two ATP-survivors is nothing scientific, but it does seem to echo a lot of other complaints I've read here and at r/flying of how effective ATP is.
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