Originally Posted by
SAABaroowski
I gotta step in here, I know when I was an instructor, myself as well as the owner of my flight school, made it crystal clear that there is no set time for a license and we "guarantee" you nothing. Some people may take longer to learn certain things and I think you would be doing them a great disservice just to get them done. How an instructor can sign someone off for a solo, or check-ride who is not ready is beyond me. Some people seem to forget that if and when your students engine quits, when his family is in the back, its your training that hes is going to rely on, cause as cheesy as it sounds, their life may depend on it! You have to wonder about a school that "guarantees" you anything other than a safe a/c and a knowledgeable instructor. How can you say someone will be ready in a fixed amount of time, its flying an airplane..............
If they're not ready, won't they most likely fail the checkrides? It is my understanding that in the 90 day program, you eat, drink, and sleep flying the whole time, and if it goes over by a few days, or if you have to go over the 200 hours, then they allow for that. My friend that went to ATP said that there was a student that just wasn't soaking in the information, so they ended up asking him to leave and refunded most of his money. The instructors there are still instructors, so I'm sure they won't be signing people off that are not ready since they know it goes on their record. Plus, how many incidents have there been of ATP grads screwing up in the 121 world? I'm sure not more than average. (I guess that can't be proven, so it's a moot point) The argument can be made that it's up to the individual. The school itself teaches what it needs to teach, it's up the pilot to use it wisely, and that includes not being a hero when you finally get hired on as an FO at a 121 job.