Deuce175

As a follow up, I just finished my ATP with Herb at PAS, and it was a great experience. He is an excellent instructor, and he and Kathy are awesome hosts and genuinely good people. A great deal for the price, and I went into the check ride completely prepared. Herb is booked through the 31 July ATP deadline, but I highly recommend any training you can do with him... Money well spent...

FlewNavy

Navy Annapolis Flight Center has room but the schedule is pretty crowded.
Same DPE used every time and practical exam is predictable. Expect 3-5 days of hard work to get done. Ask for Jenny or Frank.
[email protected]

I am not associated with NAFC.

Flyaf05

Downtown Aviation in Memphis was awesome. Day 1: Ground school and prep flight, Day 2: Checkride. $1850 for everything! Highly recommend them and their examiners are great! No surprises.

TK421v97

X2 on Downtown Aviation. Study the packet they send you prior to arrival and it'll go smoothly. I'd factor in a weather day just in case, but good folks there.

manchild

Long time lurker, first time poster... about to retire as a Navy pointy-nose guy. Anybody have recent experience with FTI Ratings, specifically their ATP-CTP and ATP practical for military in DEN? 320 or 75 sim, and would remove my c/l thrust restriction.

It's a little pricey, but seems like a good idea to knock it all out at once because of where I live, timing, etc. Have any other single seat bubbas done their program? I'm much more comfortable in a glass jet versus a light twin, but obviously haven't spent much time in a real flight deck. Don't want to throw away $6k if I'm better off just doing their ground school course and going elsewhere like N.A.F.C.?

ugleeual

Its been awhile but I used All ATPs... they are really setup for guys like you. I was a pointy nose C/L thrust restricted guy past life with about 15 hours of SE time a no prop twin time and had no issues with flying a twin to pass the ATP. I guess if your end desire is to work at SWA then do the 737 type... if not save your money... you'll need it first year.

manchild

So, I owe a reply to this thread after getting it done. First off, not going to debate the whole "get your ATP at a regional" thing nowadays due to the costs. Everyone's situation is different, and you get what you pay for.

FTI has an _excellent_ program. It's run by all current and former LCAs, and it was probably the best aviation training I've ever had. They have a staff that wants to give back to fellow aviators, and it shows. Yeah, the new mandated ATP-CTP syllabus could probably be tailored to an individual's background, but seeing as we got our sim time for it in the A320, and then rolled into the A320 for the practical, it was all good. After all, the ATP-CTP is expensive because of the sim requirement so keep that in mind.

The best part about it is the real experience of flying an airliner to validate anyone's predisposed notions about how "easy" or "boring" it is. You will not get that in a light twin, and trying to learn flows and run real checklists properly with real emergencies is time well spent. And doing it in the 2200-0200 sim slots will give you appreciation for aviating with chronic fatigue.

Anyway, that was my experience. Not sure if this will benefit my resume, but I really enjoyed the investment.

MikeF16

That's cool that you feel like you got your money's worth flying the sim and the real plane. Please don't take this as an attack on what you did because that is not my intent...

The fact an experienced military pilot needs to do anything other than send a self addressed stamped envelope to the FAA for their ATP is stupid. That A320 training will mean 0 to you when you get your 737 or MD88 out of indoc. Even if you get an A320 the company will likely have at least slightly different procedures than what they had at the sim. Practicing chronic fatigue is like practice bleeding, both are stupid propositions and don't make you any better at it when it comes time to be tired or bleed for real (and that very real fatigue could lead you to busting your ATP check ride, wouldn't that be awesome). I highly advocate getting your ATP in the most painless and inexpensive method possible.

Again, if you desire the full blown bells and whistles option and can afford it, more power to you but don't fool yourself into thinking that option will either get you hired or make you a better airline pilot down the road.

manchild

All valid points. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about the new ATP requirements. Everyone's going to have to spend about $5k on the ATP-CTP now, and shopping around doing the practical in a light twin was going to cost me about the same especially needing to remove a centerline thrust restriction. Closest deal was Mil2ATP, maybe a few hundred less, but I was still gonna have to travel. Sky Warrior offers a similar deal. Bottom line is it's gonna be about $9k.

Correct, I have no delusions that time in the sim makes me better or anything like you said. But, it was a lot more fun and relevant flying a jet than a Seminole or something with lots of weird levers, haha.

MikeF16

Yeah, the relevance of my 6 hours of twin time (can't even remember the name) is 0. The entire ATP requirement for a fixed wing military pilot with over 1500 hours is ridiculous. I thought there was still a significant cost saving by going the light twin route, if not then I take back at least some of my previous post.

On the bright side, once you get through all this the job will ultimately be worth the pain of getting it.