Hey Jeep...I may have missed this before, but what ATP location were you at? I was just wondering because I have honestly not seen the same things you have mentioned at mine.
As far as CFI school...I attended a very comprehensive CFI program and STILL did not feel like I had the teaching nuances that make a fantastic instructor. Some things are better learned by doing and getting advice from peers I guess.
Well, first, lets be honest. You work for ATP. I was at Richmond. I hear it got better after Todd was let go.
CFI school should have been more than sticking us in a room, told to study for 5 days, a 20 min spin flight(and that is all that it was), two 2 hr seminole rides doing steep turns over a lake, and flying around GA so Pat can be a tour guide sight seeing, How many folks know where Pat did his helicopter training?
My experiences from ATP are my own as a student, talking to past students, past instructors, and a few current ones. From a PR standpoint, ATP doesn't care about their students once they are signed up, and after they finish. The only thing that matters is keeping the next few students in line to sign up.
Arlington was one of my more amusing stops on my cross-countries. We stopped in to swap planes and some grub(What a burger). We hiked from the ramp to the ATP build(so fracking far btw). We went in to check the weather real quick, noticed some books, etc. No biggie, just got the weather and got lunch. We got back, preflighted the new plane, and this ATP Instructor comes running out(again long hike), Tells us a DPE is all pissed we went into the weather room, and accused us of modifying a online Iacra for a student he was doing a checkride on. We didnt do anything, just checked weather. The Instructor told us to hussle back, as soon as we got there the DPE had left a few min earlier and refusing to give them their licenses until he spoke to us. Idiots.
There are good CFI's, and bad ones. But that's not the entire picture of ATP. Like asking students to XC a plane into IMC with a broken AI, having equipment swapped out by a CFI, FAA inquiry follows. Or how about the guys who swapped planes in TTN, dual engine failure(power loss, could not maintain alt). They ended up setting it down at a nearby field. Couldn't get it to run up right. ATP Maint basically dropped the ball on the students. In the end the problem was never discovered, we think it was bad fuel/water in the tanks from apparently sitting around not flying for a month. Have a problem with a plane. Wait, some student has to fly it back to a maintenance facility, problem and all. They advertise they can train VA's, too bad it costs more, and only at one facility, nothing like jacking our VA's.
You being a CFI, I am sure you must have had some students getting dispatched into thunderstorms, or in our case hurricanes. One flight, we couldnt come home to RIC because of rain, but it was ok to send us to LZU to swap the plane out, rain, tornado warning, wind shear and all. All for maintenance Smart eh?
Your a CFI at ATP, How do you like Jim's micromanagement. Cutting back on benefits for you CFI's? And then as soon as one gets hurt/dies(FLL Midair last December) you become expendable contract employees. How are the ZAON MRX's? I remember reading an article about how ATP was toughting them as TCAS. Feel safer? Or do you guys have the TIS planes down there?
The cost for a program such as ATP can be completed much cheaper, and leave students with extremely less debt. Now, alot can be said about the nature of this industry we all aspire to partake in. Hiring is down, way down. Mins are up, and economists are thinking the airlines aren't going to bounce back to break even until 2012, or even 2013. Folks who are flying for the regionals or even the majors dont think hiring is gonna kick back up until 2012. Yourself I see is at 135 mins...Granted you may like being a CFI...But can you yourself get a job with the hours you got? Its a hard market, everyone is hurting. And fooling these kids into spending a small fortune to get ratings fast and nowhere to go is counter-productive. They have a few years before they can hope to get an airline job, take their time.
There are plenty of guys who went to ATP, finished, and say the same things I do. You don't think ATP management doesnt read these boards? post in this boards? Maybe they dont, but what takes them 5 min to spin a good tale to their story could return them in thousands in profit. ATP is a business, and unfortunately they don't see their students as customers, but rather students they can kick around as they please.
Ohh, I also forgot to mention. The private program. I solo'd 4 hrs into it...yes 4 hrs. I swore I was going to die.
