I had a very positive experience. To be brief, there is plenty of time to go home. I’d say you can expect once a month to head home. However, it is much easier to study in Houston at the hotel with classmates.

PRE Houston is ATP-CTP in Dallas. Study Shepard the entire time. Then you get some time off before Indoc.

Day one you do paperwork and introductions.

Day two you get your bonus and a discussion about AQP training. They give you a big white binder that tells you how to study, what to study, and when to study. If you follow this you will pass. It’s that easy. You also get a temporary tablet to study the Flight Ops Manual.

You then do 4 days of training on the FOM followed by a test. After this point you either get some time off or you go into systems.

If you go to systems, it is interweaved with procedure training. This takes about 3-4 weeks. You may repeat a procedure trainer, but as long as you are studying and really working at it, they will help you. If you are one to go and watch TV all night and try and practice for the PT an hour before... you’re done.

Once you wrap up systems you kind of also wrap up PT and move on to both the oral and procedure testing event. There is about a week here where you only show up twice, so you will be well studied up. They won’t send you to these unprepared.

Passing this, you get some time off (or you don’t) depending on sim availability. You can expect 1.5 weeks of maneuvers followed by the maneuvers validation event. After that you prepare for the checkride by taking three Line Oriented Training events (each one of these is more difficult than the checkride). If you don’t do well, they will help you and reschedule. It just adds days to the checkride.

my footprint was September to December with about 3 weeks off. On the first day you that white binder read the homework. Study the limitations and memorize the memory items VERBATIM. Do it where you can juggle balls and say them at the same time 100% correctly. If you study and show progress they will help you. If you don’t, or blame your partner on your shortcomings, you will get the boot. But just remember attitude is 99% of it! Good luck!