Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
When I took my ATP, I had just flown a year in the Beech 1900. Even though our military checkrides are much more difficult than an FAA ATP, the ATP check was one of the more difficult ones I can remember.
I had one day experience in the aircraft. My CFII was 20 years old and his boss running the place was maybe 22 years old. The examiner didn't care that I had only flown the airplane for one day. He made me fly a single engine NDB approach circle to land which is really no big deal, but it wasn't even on my radar scope as a possibility.
-Fatty
What really set my hair on fire was the ping-pong opposite direction approaches we were doing. IAF, procedure turn, FAF, go missed, get to the MAF and turn around to start the next procedure turn because it's also the IAF for the other direction. Not the lazy 10-15 minute radar patterns I'm used to, with time to set up and brief the approach, pull the engine, smoke a lucky, etc. Squeezing every bit of training out of the 2 hours of flight time I paid for. The CFI was cross-checking the Hobbs meter almost as much as the other instruments....if we went over 2.0 hours they'd take the overage out of his paycheck
