ATP Pros and Cons
 

I am a 20 year old recent private pilot who is thinking about going to ATP and am most likely going to be enrolling towards the end of January/early February. I see some posts on here about ATP not a lot of positives but then again what you put into something you will get out of it. people also just repeat things they hear and everyone has different experiences. Sorry for the little ramble.... So I just want to hear the good and the bad about the subject. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

Read and learn.........

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/fl...nvestment.html

ATP is a great school. My best guess is that many negative responses are from those who did not have the drive and motivation to be successful. It is a six month program from zero time. Currently, I am on track for about 7 months due to poor weather in Tampa. ATP provides the tools (Instructors, Student Extranet, Online modules, etc) for anyone to succeed.. With this said, it is a very fast paced program that will require discipline. You MUST study daily, at least for a few hours to build up knowledge and skill. Overall, I don't think you will find anything comparable to ATP... Many programs look good, but if you can stay disciplined and follow ATP's structure/syllabus, you will be far ahead of the game.

Your guess? You're aware that most of those who participate here are professional aviators, and most of us are ATP pilots? We lack the drive and motivation to be successful?

Perhaps it's just that many of us have been in the industry a little longer than your few months...some of us for several decades. Thirty years, get back to us and tell us about our lack of drive and motivation. We'll be long retired from full careers.

ATP offers what any other flight school offers; basic flight training.

I have never had an employer ask where I trained. Perhaps you'll have the unique experience of an employer that's impressed with your having attended the school.

You say you don't think any school or training program could be comparable to ATP. You're a student at ATP. How many other programs and schools do you have experience with?

When you complete your ratings, are you going to go to work as an instructor for the school?

*snicker*

A friend of mine spent 2 years and $40k on zero to CFI, but after getting bumped off before CFI, she spent another year and another $10k on fixing what ATP had not taught her. They teach you the absolute bare minimum to pass the checkrides, which, for my MEI, would have been an absolute joke.
You're paying for nothing more than the ability to say you are "proficient" in a multi-engine (as much as a PA-44 is a true ME) when you apply to the regionals.

I did some training with ATP. I probably wouldn't do it with them again since they aren't very flexible, can be difficult to work with, and are very expensive.

However, if I had to do it again at ATP, I would do my training at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway airport location (tons of planes, onsite maintenance, good weather, tons of networking opportunities, etc etc).

I completed the ATP program with the private credit and can give some insight to how it went. If you're going there to get your ratings and get out and on to something better, then it's a good place to do that. If you're looking to work for them after or get a job as a CFI then I would proceed with caution. It is a fast paced program and the instructors are there to get their ATP mins and get out, that's it. The company will treat you as though you work for them and if you're behind schedule for some reason they will tell you to complete the next step in the timeline in a given set of weeks or they will drop you with no refund. You will have to download Sheppard Air or some other program for ground school because the instructors will teach you little to nothing. I currently work at a flight school with at least 5 other former ATP students and not one has a good thing to say about their instructor or the management. The local area manager has recently resigned because he was forced out trying to change things for the better and many instructors leave for better gigs. If you want your ratings in under a year then go right ahead, it's one of the best, if not the best, way to do it. Just know that you'll have management on your back the whole way and you'll need to look for another job after your time there.

hahaha, just wait man......you're going to be in for a rude shock if you plan on working for them. their "guaranteed" CFI job is a complete scam.

ATP Cleaning Verification is extremely easy to use with a minimal amount of training. ATP Cleaning Verification gives a numeric measurement of organic material (ATP) on a surface, measured in relative light units (RLU). There are zero costs for software licenses, equipment leases, or yearly maintenance.