ATP/CTP Courses at Regionals
 

I'm getting ready to fire off some applications to a couple of the companies that are currently offering the course as I missed the boat last summer with the new requirements for the written. I know, tisk, tisk...everyone knew it was coming and I should have done it last year, however, I had circumstances that did not allow it.

Couple questions for those that have completed the program or are aware of how it works:

How did the company incorporate the training in regards to the rest of the training timeline?

Where did you complete the training and were you paid and/or holding a sen number?

How would you describe the course in general? Did you feel it was stressful combining it with your new hire training? Was it well presented and professionally ran?

How prepared were you already to pass the written? (meaning, did you go in having pre studied the question bank)

Thanks in advance to all the helpful folks here!



























































































































































































































When did you receive you sen number?

Thank you for hitting the return button 389 times before typing your last question.

Bahahahahahaha. I needed that

Coming from the dood who responds in red text. Y'all cut from da same cloth.

Coming from the "Head Troll"

Bro. Stop chasing me around. It's starting to get a little scary with your multiple backup screen names and all.

I own u.

Let's be honest FB, the only thing you own here is a horrible reputation and the title of "Chief Executive Troll," which you successfully lowered yourself to over in the main Mesa thread. Now run along and go play with your Skybesties...

To the OP, I'm not aware of that many regionals with a CTP program in place (XJT?). I do know of a few flight schools that are selling the program (Aerosim, ERAU, ATP) to the newest batch of the young, naive SJS crowd. I am not that familiar with the CTP program and what it entails, but I would bet my left nut that as long as airline pilot hopefuls are paying for the course out of their own pockets then the regionals will have no desire or need to develop their own respective programs. The way I see it, this is no different than the old PFT schemes of the past.

Please don't shell out the coin for one of these programs. Let a future employer bear the cost of training their employees to the standard required for the job.

A) The Mesa thread is a burning dumpster fire that reeks of DUI's and check ride failures without my input whatsoever. If anything I classed up the joint.

B) I hold the deed to do many of you guys I'm going to need a file cabinet.

Carry on.

Sorry for the mishap on the format. I didn't realize what happened until it was too late.

Currently, TSA, XJT, and SKYW are all offering courses for free. I've been in contact with a few others that are very close. Soon, I'm guessing they all will. (regionals, that is)

And yes, I agree, no pilot should pay one cent for this. This is why I am limited to the companies listed above for now.

Word. Best of luck man!

I don't know.

I just wanted to quote this again

Funny...even though I gooned it up, at least it's entertaining a few. Any feedback to the original content (not the ridiculous way it was presented) would be greatly appreciated.:)

There are so few who have done it, and the number of posters here is a tiny fraction of the regional airline pilot population, so you probably won't get much, if any, help for a little while until more go through it. But the best guess I can give you is, if it is an in house CTP, your seniority number will be given for the date you are hired (when you start working for the company, not when they agree to hire you). If they pay for you to go to one of those flight schools to do it prior to your class date, your seniority number is probably only going to start when you get on property (i.e. start your company indoc class).

I'm guessing they incorporate it into indoc or some other time at the beginning of class, because they aren't gonna pay for you to go thru sims only to then hook the written and then have to fire or retrain you.

No guesses for the rest, but all my mil buddies who did sheppard air prep got mid-high 90s and were in and out in 30-45 mins. Thats after studying (memorizing) for 3 straight days or so. If the gouge that shep air has is still good since these new shenanigans came into being, I'd do all that memorizing before you start and then refresh before you take the written. While the material that is covered in the CTP is important to know as a pilot, the written is the written, and there are tried and true ways of taking it and acing it...unless they changed it significantly with the new one, and the old tried and true methods are no longer valid. The support at shep air could probably answer that for you.

The guidance from the FAA when they started this says that if a company provides a CTP to new hires it has to be separate from the company indoc. The only allowance they give is if a new hire has gone through a company CTP, they can get some credit in indoc. As long there is a mix of pre Aug 14 writtens and people going through the CTP I don't see a reduced indoc.

Thanks for the info

ROFLMFAO! You're a trip!

So I'm sitting here studying for my ATP written and I'm dumbfounded by how most of the aerodynamics questions are from the Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators book. I'm not saying the book doesn't cover every aspect of aerodynamics well, but I would use the word "overkill" on much of the knowledge presented. If you want to be an aviation engineer, sure most of it will be useful, but does an airline pilot really need to memorize and be tested on the specificity of a 7% induced drag increase in a 15 degree banked turn? While that 7% is great textbook material, it's fairly useless to a pilot. Certainly a pilot should know that drag increases in a bank, but knowing how to calculate it by using the formula 1/cos(bank angle)... I mean come on test writers, come up with things that apply to actual daily flying. Several questions about calculating distance to become airborne again after deciding to abort a takeoff... so when the captain touches down long and asks me if we should go around, i'll say hold on please, i need to calculate time for spoolup and acceleration, divide by 3600 to convert seconds to hours, then multiply that by our groundspeed and i'll let you know the distance for getting airborne again.

So many questions on this written that would be relevant if i was going to work in airplane design, but the info will be forgotten the day after the test when it comes to line pilots. Here is my favorite answer explanation for a question regarding high altitude turning performance... "The knowledge of this turning performance is particularly necessary for effective operation of fighter and interceptor type airplanes." Excellent... glad I'm being tested on things that don't apply to the operations I'm being tested for. I have a feeling all these FAA guys making the tests are former military pilots (all due respect, I'm former military too) and just pull these questions out of the books they learned from, not even correlating that airline and civilian pilots are not studying the same books. I would love to see many more questions about practical day to day operations and less high level engineering info that I can't apply in the cockpit without using a scientific calculator. It's so telling how irrelevant this stuff is when all the test study guides just tell you to memorize the answer because the math is too hard. Hey FAA test guys... make questions that are important to our normal operations, not just cool math formulas pulled from a PHD level aerodynamics book that only military pilots have read. Anyone else share my frustration with this?

That is why I used Sheppard Air. I studied a few weeks, used their memorization tools, and achieved a 98% score. As with most FAA writtens, there is little to be put into practicality from the ATP exam, hence why a practical exam/checkride is also needed to achieve the ATP rating. Don't overthink it, and don't overstudy, period.

Yeah the questions are kind of dumb, but if you've taken writtens or mil comp writtens thru commercial, they have probably asked you a lot of questions already. There is no question I use a small fraction, if that, of what they ask on the atp written on a daily basis in 121 ops, but I think, since they leave the question and answer bank such that you can easily Sheppard air the test (memorize the answers without really knowing the content), they just want to ask higher level questions, touching on new subject material (which is primarily higher/faster aerodynamics) and see if you can memorize the answers. I don't do a whole lot of math in my head or on a calculator in this job, and I think they know that. There isn't a whole lot other than that different from the instrument or commercial, though I never took those writtens so im not sure. That's the only thing I can think.

If they wanted people to actually solve the problems and not just memorize test prep software they would shuffle the answers in the answers bank. That fact shaped my view of the FAAs stance on the test. They did a decent job of covering the 121 regs though in the test I thought.

I took my written a few weeks ago after attending the Aerosim ATP/CTP. Heavy on weather, performance charts from the CRJ, and miscellaneous CRM questions. NOT one flight planning or weight & balance question. Didn't have to use a calculator(or E6B) at all....

I'm in Mesa ground school and got word today that they will send me through CTP. This will help a lot of folks who need to take their written.

Where are you going to do the CTP?

I was told most likely Dallas. I think they are still working on the date and exact location though.

Like an in-house thing?

I'm not sure. PM me if you want a phone number to their recruiter that would have more answers.

Oh I was just curious...hadn't heard anything internally about Mesa providing CTP that's all.

Wait so they are hiring people who don't have writtens done now? When did that happen? And not only that, why would they put you thru ground before the CTP?

It may have been that I was employed by Mesa and typed awhile back. I went Military and came back. I'll be starting the CTP training soon.

Ah makes sense. Thought they still required written to be done. I see that dropping soon though.

I started systems a few weeks ago and was told they are still taking applicants without the written. My assumption is that they will provide the CTP and then have the pilot start indoc after, that's just my opinion.

I don't they, or any regional, will have a choice if they want butts in the classroom.

I've been out for several years in a non-flying job (looking at getting back in). Can someone clarify with the new rule, is the CTP required before you can take the ATP written, or can you still take the written after a quick test prep like Sheppard Air?

Need to do an ATP CTP course to take the written as of August 2014.

Thank you for the clarification.

In the aerosim course did they actually prep you for the written, or was it strictly by the curriculum they have to follow from the FAA?

Im just wondering, if you take Aerosim's course, is it still prudent to get some other test prep going, like Shepperd to Gliem etc?

I did the Shepperd ATP course a few years ago and recommend it. I think they have a money back guarantee if you score less than 90%; so either way it's a good deal.

Oh yea, I swear by Shep.. I did my Instrument through them.

I was just curious if the CTP was set up as a written prep or just the basics needed to satisfy the FAA.

Not in the slightest bit. All FAA slides and correctable quizzes. We all crammed using Sheppard Air; that's the only way to do it, IMHO.