New to the forum here so sorry if the ATP thing has been beaten with a dead stick, but...

I plan to leave my job with Alaska Airlines, after 9 years, and persue my flying. Currently at 240TT I plan to attent ATP in January or febuary doing the CFI program (I will get my multi in the next few months). So a few questions for those of you who know.

1. I understand you need to apply to ATP to get excepted, correct?

2. The program is 2 weeks, then stardization, how long does that last?

3. I'd like to get into the Houston school, how the average availability getting in there?

4. Is that true its all multi when you teach?

5. What is ATP true CFI to Regional average time?

Thanks, J

Actually, have a chat with HR before leaving Alaska. MANY carriers allow their employees in good standings to take leaves of absence to fly for commuters or regionals, including flight school, to gain the hours for the pilot jobs. Try that route before quitting.

AlaskaOps,

There are a ton of threads on here about ATP. Do a search. This one will probably get all the answers you do and do not want and at some point lafrequentflyer will chime in with his endorsement. ONe thing to understand, he has never even been anywhere near any of their locations. I think he just likes the colors on the advertisements.

Hiring times are low right now. Pilot factories will have high turnover. A couple of people in my ground school right now have commented that they went through their ratings fast when they had an instructor. Some in accellerated programs waited weeks/months for available instructors.

Time is time, it doesn't matter where you get it and DO NOT waste your money on any time of simulator or FMS course no matter how much they say it will help you. Everything you need to know about whatever plane you fly at your first 121 gig will be taught in their groundschool and the ATP stuff could potentially harm you if they use a different aircraft, procedures, etc. You might spend more time unlearning stuff than learning and you'll be further in debt.

I go to ATP - and I love it.

1. Yes, you need to apply/interview unless you do the private pilot and ACPP programs. You basically fly the sim and asked basic private pilot q's.

2. CFI school is 2 weeks, then if you get hired, you go to JAX to do standardization. I think that's around 2 weeks - and until a location that you "bid" for opens up, you are in JAX answering phones.

3. Don't know about availablilty....it depends on who leaves when and where. I think that you'd most likely get FL if you had no pref, and you'd probably be stuck answering phones for awhile if Houston was the only place you wanted to instruct.

4. No it is not all multi. You might also be instructing private pilots or time-building with them before they start the ACPP. There is a good chance though that you will get more multi than single.

5. Hmmmm....6 months? All the instructors I know/knew instructed on average for 6 months or so at ATP.

Good luck!

MHM

same here...

i have a blast, since the instructors are usually around 20-26 it's easy, as a peer, to ask questions, debate, or ask what if's...

the ONLY downside, is that it is a lot of self studying. which is fine, but i'm not much of a bookworm, and would much rather prefer human contact.

I am about 99% positive you will get a LOT of multi time unless you go to a big location that has a bunch of pvt pilot students.