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ATP flight school Chicago

Old 11-09-2011, 12:55 PM
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Default ATP flight school Chicago

Hello,

I am working on my PPL right now at a local flight club and want to dive head-first into commerical. I have heard good and bad things about ATP and it seems like location means everything. Does anyone have information about the Chicago ATP school? Thanks for your time.
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Old 11-10-2011, 07:45 AM
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ATP is good if you have to get it done fast. Training is tailored to be productive and efficient. Not that it couldn't be that way at local flying clubs, but this is their specialty. You are going to pay for it up front, but if you tried to do this on your own motivation it might cost you just as much and take twice as long. If you are looking to do this in the winter good luck...your window of flyable wx is closing!

I would recommend ATP. I have instructed in Chicago for several years, and it can be a challenging area to learn in with regards to the winter. So get moving or wait until the thaw of spring! Or go south...that would be a better option this time of year, but that will incur lodging fees.
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Old 11-10-2011, 11:52 AM
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This is my 1st year flying so does the winter pretty much cut flying for a period of time? I figured most planes were in hangers or could atleast be flown in the cold.
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Old 11-10-2011, 11:57 AM
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The winter is difficult because of the high winds and low ceilings. You can't get a lot of solid training in usually. The other difficulty is the holidays. Because of the changing weather, you can have something scheduled and have to cancel a lot. So it is not as easy as flying in the summer and fall. Depending on how close you are to finishing your PPL, it might take the rest of the winter just to finish that. What are your goals for finishing? Recreation or are you trying to do this for a career?

Overall, this time of year presents many challenges in regards to weather. That is the main thing you have to contend with.
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Old 11-11-2011, 09:58 AM
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I am working a fulltime gig while i finish my PPL but after I get 85 hours I am looking to go full-time. I'm hoping to get that many hours between now and Feb.
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Old 11-12-2011, 08:09 PM
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As for ATP itself in Chicago I can't speak for it, but I do know that the Dupage FSDO that you will probably have to go through can be extremely unreasonable. I have heard that their failure rates for the initial CFI is around 90%. Normally I would take information that I have read on the forums with a grain of salt, but I know multiple people who went there and failed repeatedly. They are now some of the smartest instructors I know so its clearly not a competency issue.
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Old 11-13-2011, 09:59 AM
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I'm not familiar with ATP's Chicago location, but I have also heard bad stories about the Dupage FSDO. Manly for CFI initials (and there are so many FSDOs with bad reputations when it comes to CFI).

And as others have said, the weather is starting to get bad. Don't expect to get much of any flight time from the holidays through January. But really anytime during November to March can have long stretches of bad weather in the Chicagoland area. Winds, cold, snow, low clouds with icing, etc. I've even seen snow in May. Although when it comes to getting your cross country time, ATP will likely send you south to where the weather is better.

I grew up in Chicago, love the city, but hate the winters.

As for ATP, do your research. If you sign up for the 90 day program they will try to push you through as fast as they can whether you are ready or not. I think the quality of the pilots ATP puts out are directly tied to how each individual can handle that type of accelerated training. If you are really dedicated and self-motivated you can do just fine, if not you will only get enough out of it to get your certs. The ATP style of training gets a lot of people burnt out.
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Old 11-14-2011, 09:03 AM
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ATP says they send you elsewhere for your CFI. This is off their website.

"CFI Training will require approximately 14 consecutive days in Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, or Las Vegas"

So wouldn't I do everything down there?
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Old 11-14-2011, 12:51 PM
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In Chicago they use a specific DPE for the ratings before CFI, and I have a lot of experience with her. She is very straight forward and reasonable. They have you go to their examiners picked by ATP. The FSDO in Chicago is very difficult and they fail people a lot!
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