Originally Posted by
HawkDriver3
I've filtered through a lot of threads and can't quite find what I'm looking for so I apologize in advance if this has been covered. I'm a Army National Guard soldier heading to Rucker this summer for WOFT. My plan when I return back to my unit is to start fixed wing training to qualify for the R-ATP. When looking up RTP programs it seems like most have a 500+ TT hour requirement. Does anyone else here have any experience/advise for looking into RTPs right after flight school considering I'll have roughly 180-200 hours of rotor time only?
If I were you I’d focus on army flight school if I were you. You still have 1.5-2 years before you’re back to your unit. When you get back to your unit I’d worry about your RL progression. Maybe once you’re up to speed there and RL1 (another 6 months or so) I’d look into fixed wing add ons. But I doubt you’ll get any help from RTP programs until you have more time.
Do you have a private license yet? I found that my 25 or so hours of Cessna lessons I took on my own prior to going to Rucker helped me a lot there. Then my PPL fixed wing add on after army flight school was 1 flight of maneuvers and a few cross countries and a checkride. Additionally, all my buddies who started in helicopters then transitioned to airplanes later seemed to have a lot more trouble (especially at the airline level) than those with some FW experience prior to Rucker. That is anecdotal, but I keep hearing a lot of stories from regional check airman buddies about how bad many of the RTP guys are. My theory is it has something to do with laws of primacy and all that but I don’t know.
Not sure what your financial situation is or what job you’ll have back at your unit, but buying a cheap plane may be the best way to build time initially. I had a cheap plane I flew while in the army, and getting my Inst/comm add ons (before RTPs were a thing) was very easy after having a couple hundred hours in my plane. If you can get your own add on ratings thru comm single/multi and then become a CFI you can stop paying for time and start getting paid to fly fw.
To get an AMEL r-ATP, you still need 250 airplane PIC hours. Your pre-PPL solo hours count, but none of your dual received does until you get a PPL. So I’d recommend getting your PPL, building time as you can (maybe throw in an instrument add on as well...it’s easy), then as you get closer to rATP time get a commercial/multi, possibly thru an RTP program depending on what’s out there at the time (things will be different then than they are today). Or getting your CFI as soon as you can once you’re back from Rucker.
If building FW time on your own is out of the question, you’ll prob have to wait a few years until you have more helo/total time before an RTP will help you out.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck.