I don't have my written complete and will be attending Air Wisconsin's ATP CTP course. Just wanted to know if anyone could give me some insight as to whether or not I should buy and study the sheppard air ATP test prep or will the in house course prep me enough for the written. Thanks for any advice.

 

The CTP course has very specific subject matter to be covered in both the ground school and simulator portions. I can't speak much to the ground school b/c I wasn't involved with that. I did however participate in the designing of the 10 hour simulator curriculum for AWAC. It had ZERO to do with the ATP written exam. I'm going to guess that the ground school portion deals more with broad/general subject matter pertaining to turbojet/prop aircraft and performance and is not designed to actually prepare you for the written exam. I'm sure someone else here can speak from either experience or knowledge of that syllabus.

 

The classroom instruction for the CTP is driven by 61.156:

(a) Academic training. The applicant for the knowledge test must receive at least 30 hours of classroom instruction that includes the following:

(1) At least 8 hours of instruction on aerodynamics including high altitude operations;

(2) At least 2 hours of instruction on meteorology, including adverse weather phenomena and weather detection systems; and

(3) At least 14 hours of instruction on air carrier operations, including the following areas:

(i) Physiology;

(ii) Communications;

(iii) Checklist philosophy;

(iv) Operational control;

(v) Minimum equipment list/configuration deviation list;

(vi) Ground operations;

(vii) Turbine engines;

(viii) Transport category aircraft performance;

(ix) Automation, navigation, and flight path warning systems.

(4) At least 6 hours of instruction on leadership, professional development, crew resource management, and safety culture.


Hardly any of this directly applies to the written. The ATP/Higher Power CTP includes Sheppard Air as part of cost you pay. They tell you go through Sheppard on your own before you take the written.

 

Thanks everyone. I just received an email with info for test prep for the course. I will check it out and if it seems all encompassing I pass on the shepp air, if not I'll purchase the ATP prep software.

Thanks again

 

The CTP course WILL NOT prepare you to take the written. Get Shep and study that dude after class. I took the 8 day course with Aerosim in Orlando and it was awesome, but very little covered on the written. We just studied after class on our Ipads, and on the last day they administered the test.

Im sure AWAC is going to be similar. Like the above post references, the material is very specific as dictated by the FAA

 

Take the Sheppard Air prep. It is all encompassing and based on the FAA test bank. Every question on your written will come from that test bank. Sheppard Air must have a mole in the FAA because they somehow pare down the several thousand possible questions to about 1200. Those are the ones you will study and you will likely not see more than two questions on the actual test that you didn't see in prep software.

Follow the study strategy exactly as described by Sheppard Air when you get the login info. It will take you a couple of weeks but it is well worth it. I did and got a 97 and I suck at written tests.

 

What they said

I did the Sporties through ABX, does not prepare you for the written at all. Get Shep Air and spend an hour or so a night studying it. No problems with the written. One thing to think about, they completely changed the test last year so if you borrow something from your buddy that took his over a year ago it may not be relevant to the new test

 

I'll speak for the ground instruction side of the CTP course...the classroom subjects cover very specific requirements and really are tangential to the ATM.

You will need to pay attention in class and take decent notes and you will pass.

The CTP is just a prerequisite for taking the ATM and while there is some overlap, we provide the online study course so that you can spend the time you are not in class preparing for the ATM.

Good luck.