A day in the life of a 90 day career pilot student

[PilotB]

Don't knock it until you try it. The jet ride was a blast, and the program was reasonable. ATP is not for everybody, some people can't do enough self study to keep up properly.

My Citation ride was sweet and felt like a reward at the end, I think most people here would be willing to fly a Citation for 3 hours and pay for it.

 

[pokin]

B-ryce how'd CFI school go? You gotta be down to only a week or so left. Let me know how it's going.

Peter

 

[PilotB]

Man it is tough but I have a really good class. I'm in Jacksonville with Walt (holy crap he knows everything). Right now I am waiting to see when the ride is and where I am going. I should be done middle of next week.

Let us know how XJT is going.

bryce

 

[Heath]

OK, didn't mean to let 7 days slip by between posts! But, I don't need to tell you guys that I'm busy!

Anyway, here's the scoop from my journaling...

3/9 Wednesday - Day 10

Sim and more sim! Today we just did some victor airways, radial intercepting and tracking. Very easy straight and level stuff, with some radio work, etc thrown in. Not very challenging, but a necessary evil to burn off the required sim time and cover everything. Then afternoon studying for my commercial exam, looking like a Friday exam date for the commercial written.

3/10 Thursday - Day 11

Finally! A little flying time. We did a x-country in the 172 to Jasper to burn off some of my Cessna time. 1.9 over to Jasper, a nasty lunch at a place called "Old Timer's." Do yourself a favor, if ever offered to eat there, make a quick declination and suggest something else! It was the nastiest restaurant on the planet!!! It had that commercial carpet and it was so nasty I could feel my feet sticking to the floor, ick! And the table tops were coated with sticky grease that you could scrape with your finger nail! Totally disgusting!

Anyway, 2.2 from Jasper to Dalton and back to FTY for 4.1 of 172 time in the log, leaving 3.8 of time-building to go.

3/11 Friday - Day 12

Nasty winds today. We did .9 in the 172 flying over to McCullough to pick up some computers for ATP. Loaded up the back seat with computers and then right back to FTY. It would have been an uneventful, boring flight, but the crosswinds were strong and nasty! Made it fine, but I was GLAD to be on the ground when it was over. Never thought I'd say that!

Afternoon consisted of sitting for the commercial written. Passed with a 95%!

Not much simmin', though, as the instructors have been busy. Congrats to Mike who got job offers from both Colgan Airlines and Regions Airlines! And to Chad, my instructor, who, unfortunately for me, got hired by Landaire Mapping flying senecas for government aerial mapping.

Its cool to see the instructors getting hired!

Gotta run, I'll be back to post the last two days later!

Heath

 

[Captain_Bob]

[ QUOTE ]
PS: a comfortable study/test schedule would be something like this...

Study now for the Instrument and II... same test bank. Take those two tests on Day One of the program. Day one is just a bunch of paperwork anyway and usually only a half day.

Then 1 week for CAX, 1 week for FIA, and 1 weekend (if that) for the FOI. In that order... if you stick to it... it's a fairly comfortable ride. That means you'll be done with all tests within 3 weeks of starting the program, and you will have less potential for stressing/burnout as you go.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thanks for the info on typical study times. I'm hoping to condense it a little faster than that! I'm thinking at the present rate that I'll be ready for the Instrument and II by Thursday. Then I'm gonna try to cram in the CAX by Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish FIA and FOI by the end of the first week.

I'd really like to get all the writtens down and out before I'm ready for any checkrides. That way I can at that point devote any study time to be spot-on ready for my practicals as they come.

That's the plan anyhow.


[/ QUOTE ]

The best laid plans... LOL!

Keep rockin!

It's nice to see Instructor movement when you're training. It helps motivate, in my opinion. When I was training everything was stagnant... it was a little disconcerting... but it worked out in the end.

And no worries about not updateing daily... I like the weekly synopsis format best, and it's a better read... With your schedule, it's probably easier on you too.

Bob

 

[hierhier]

Hey Heath is Robert T. still an instructor there? Tell him Chad T. said hi back from July 04. I did my private multi with him if you would.

 

[GaTechKid]

Yes

 

[Heath]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Heath is Robert T. still an instructor there? Tell him Chad T. said hi back from July 04. I did my private multi with him if you would.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, Robert's still here, although he's had one interview and has another coming, so I'd say his days here are numbered.

I'll pass the word on tomorrow if I see him.

Heath

 

[Heath]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PS: a comfortable study/test schedule would be something like this...

Study now for the Instrument and II... same test bank. Take those two tests on Day One of the program. Day one is just a bunch of paperwork anyway and usually only a half day.

Then 1 week for CAX, 1 week for FIA, and 1 weekend (if that) for the FOI. In that order... if you stick to it... it's a fairly comfortable ride. That means you'll be done with all tests within 3 weeks of starting the program, and you will have less potential for stressing/burnout as you go.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thanks for the info on typical study times. I'm hoping to condense it a little faster than that! I'm thinking at the present rate that I'll be ready for the Instrument and II by Thursday. Then I'm gonna try to cram in the CAX by Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish FIA and FOI by the end of the first week.

I'd really like to get all the writtens down and out before I'm ready for any checkrides. That way I can at that point devote any study time to be spot-on ready for my practicals as they come.

That's the plan anyhow.


[/ QUOTE ]

The best laid plans... LOL!

Keep rockin!

It's nice to see Instructor movement when you're training. It helps motivate, in my opinion. When I was training everything was stagnant... it was a little disconcerting... but it worked out in the end.

And no worries about not updateing daily... I like the weekly synopsis format best, and it's a better read... With your schedule, it's probably easier on you too.

Bob

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, yep, I'm BUSTED! Funny, you pretty much nailed it dead on!

So, Mr. Crystal Ball, got any predictions for the hiring prognosis in a year when I'm ready to apply to the regionals?

I'm counting on you to lay the ground work for me at Express Jet and then put in a good word for a fellow ATP'er!

How's that goin', by the way? You should start a day in the life of a new Xpress Jet F/O blog!

Heath

 

[IndianaPilot]

Cool Heath sounds like you been busy !! Funny thing about the restaurant....there is one similar to it my dad and I went to when we were at the Seattle museum of flight....it's right down the street from there. Tons of cool model aircraft and books in there to look at...but kind of a dirty place all around. My ATP interview is march 25th....anything i should be expecting? How about the phone portion ?

 

[Heath]

Alright, back to bringing the blog up to date...

3/12 Saturday - Day 13

Nothing too hard today. Did 2.0 in the sim each today for a total of 4 hours in that big white "humble box." Chad worked us through full approaches, occassionally throughing in a failure here and there to keep us on our toes. The other half of the day was spent studying for the next written, Flight Instructor Airplane.

3/13 Sunday - Day 14

Again, a very tedious day of half a day of ground school, 4 hours in the sim, and then self-study for the FIA written.

3/14 Monday - Day 15

Today was a hectic day for our instructors with one being gone, and another, my instructor Chad, being on his last day. One replacement, Stuart, arrived today. I'm not sure when the other new guy gets here. In the mix, I didn't get any sim or actual flying today. I little ground school, and then some self-study...

3/15 Tuesday - Day 16

OK, first day with the new instructor. At first, I wasn't sure how to take him. He seemed pretty intense, and in the simulator it seemed as though he was failing something every other second and sometimes playing ATC from hell, vectoring us into PITA positions and then failing stuff and making it hard on us. At one point, I thought my training partner was gonna lose it! But, I figure it'll make us better pilots, learning to deal with all he's dishing out. Plus, I'm hoping as the new gung-ho instructor mode wears off of him, he'll mellow out a little! But, after 6 hours in the sim, my brain is fried!!!

3/16 Wednesday - Day 17

Ah, another long day in sim hades! 7.0 hours of communications failures in the clouds, engine failure after engine failure, total vacuum system failure, loss of oil pressure, fuel pump failures, you name it, he threw it at us! But, it felt good at the end of the day to be coming in for a GPS approach, have a loss of vacuum, fine, I switch to partial panel and stabilize. I'm turning onto final approach course and I lose my left engine, fine, mixtures, props, throttles, identify dead foot, verify and close throttle, feather the prop, cut the mixtures and secure the engine, stabilize and continue my approach single-engine AND partial panel. Bring it down nice and stable to MDA to bust through the clouds pretty as you please and put 'er on the runway just like nothing was wrong! Felt good to look back like, "OK, now what?" and hear him say "Good job."

So, I'm exhausted, but feeling like I'm making progress and can really do this pilot thing.

Till next time,
Heath

 

[Heath]

Back to the blog!

3/17 - Day 18

Sim, sim, sim, sim, sim, sim, sim, sim!

Seven more hours in the stimulator! Everything's starting to slow down, though. The engine failures, seem routine and don't freak me out, the partial panels aren't any big deal, no 3 green on gear down just means go to the checklist. It really does help and makes you comfortable and not in a panic when something goes wrong. And the bright side is, we're getting close to having all our sim time knocked out and then it'll be just real flying!

3/18 - Day 19

Guess what we did today? Yep, 5.5 in the big white humble box. It was really uneventful. We flew some full length cross countries where we did all the mock radio communications, etc. It was good practice.

3/19 - Day 20

Ok, first day off since program start. Brian and I both are close to being ready for our writtens, so we have today and tomorrow off to study and get the next written done.

3/20 - Day 21

Another day in the books. I'm finished reading the material and just going through the Gleim practice questions for the Flight Instructor Airplane exam. It seems much like a review of the stuff you have to do for the PPL, Commercial, and Instrument exams, just in a little more depth. Not too bad, though. I'll be ready for the exam in the next day or so, whenever the schedule allows.

3/21 - Day 22

Finally! A day back in a real airplane!

We did 2.1 in the twin over to Athens (AHN) and back. Three instrument approaches, one with a simulated engine failure and one partial panel. Man, is it SOOOO much easier in the airplane. It's good to be in the air again!

3/22 - Day 23

Initially planned to fly, but weather didn't cooperate. So, we did 4.0 in the sim, and then I took my FIA exam. Passed with a 96%! And the good news, only 3.5 hours of sim time left to burn! Yeah, baby!

3/23 - Day 24

Had an eye exam early in the morning, then an evening flight of 2.1. The had dilated my eyes this morning, which had worn off by the time of flying, but I had an AWFUL headache. Really didn't do my best flying. I felt like the plane took off and I was still on the runway waving at it! But, didn't slam it in hard on landing or anything, just felt behind the plane throughout the flight, misread the chart once and started to descend below the published mins, stupid mistakes like that. But, it hasn't discouraged me. I just didn't feel well to begin with and we all have our bad days.

3/24 - Day 25

Did a 100 NM night cross country to Augusta, GA and did 10 landings. The weather was perfect, the air was smooth as glass, and I did 10 of the nicest landings I've done!

It was good practice and a much better ride than yesterday.

Till Next time,
Heath

 

[CRJDriver]

Excellent! Look's like you're having a blast. That's a lot of sim time. Well, ATP does say that in the end you'll have around 50 hrs of sim time.

 

[lookingdown]

Heath,

Amazing blog/journal. I can only hope I have the same success and fun that you are having.

I was pleased to read about all the study/personal time you have been able to carve out for yourself. That has been my biggest concern so far about ATP. It sounds like, on average, you spend about 4-5 hours in the sim or aircraft and the rest of the days is yours to manage as you see fit.

Thanks for the info and keep it coming.

 

[Heath]

[ QUOTE ]
Heath,

Amazing blog/journal. I can only hope I have the same success and fun that you are having.

I was pleased to read about all the study/personal time you have been able to carve out for yourself. That has been my biggest concern so far about ATP. It sounds like, on average, you spend about 4-5 hours in the sim or aircraft and the rest of the days is yours to manage as you see fit.

Thanks for the info and keep it coming.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, before starting, I kind of expected to have long eight hour days of ground/sim/flight training, followed by hours of study every night. It has been a little more relaxed than that. Usually half of your day is spent flying/training, and the other half is spent studying during the ME and Instrument phases. After that, it is x-country time and you're at the mercy of dispatch. Then comes Commercial/CFI stage, which is two weeks of checkride after checkride and cramming in the info to be ready for the rides. Looks to be much more intense then.

But right now, it hasn't been that bad. Plenty of info and lots of learning, but not at all overwhelming.

Heath

 

[Heath]

Now on with the blog!

3/25, Friday - Day 26

Really nice flying today! We did the long commercial x-country, FTY-MOB-BFM-PNS, dinner at PNS, then PNS-GVL-PDK-FTY, all at night!

The take off at BFM was really cool! I'd strongly recommend a flight there to anyone within a reasonable distance. Runway 17 terminates into the bay so you take off directly over water at the end of the runway, it was really scenic with the nice skies and full moon glowing! Had BBQ at Smokey Bones in Pensacola and then back to Atlanta, with required night landings at Gainesville, GA and Peachtree-Dekalb.

Fun flying but a long night, didn't land until 11:30pm, getting home at midnight and have to be at the airport at 7am!

3/26 Saturday - Day 27

Another fun, but shorter day of flying. Tough getting out of bed with less than 6 hours' sleep, but I was OK once I got up. We flew to FTY-CHA-RHP-FTY under the hood. It was cool doing an instrument approach into Andrews-Murphy, getting to minimums and then lifting the hood to see mountains all around!

Also, we were cruising along at 7,000 and ATC requested us to drop to 5,000 immediately as fast as possible for traffic!

Dropped the power, and did 170kts down to 5,000, kinda fun.

3/27 Easter Sunday - Day 28

Poor weather and t-storms were forecast for all day, so we decided to enjoy the holiday. I've only got 9.6 hours left to fly in the twin for my instrument checkride and its not scheduled until a week from Tuesday, on 4/5. So, we're ahead of schedule. Spent the morning in church with my beautiful wife.

Then, a little studying for the FOI and a good night's sleep.

3/28 Monday - Day 29

Supposed to show up at 8am to knock out the last 3.5 hours of sim time. Got in the sim to discover that it has a mechanical malfunction, the rudder trim is messed up and it has a full right deflection of the rudder, rendering it unflyable. So, did a last minute review for the FOI and now I'm just killin' time waiting for some guys doing the reviews for ATP and FE exams to get finished so I can take the exam when a computer frees up. So, a little slow today. Will post my exam results later, if I ever get to take the exam!!!!

Later,
Heath

 

[CRJDriver]

Sweet

Thanks for the updates! One question, though. Does ATP let you choose were you want to fly on your cross-countries?

Thanks and keep up the good work!

 

[SmitteyB]

[ QUOTE ]
Sweet

Thanks for the updates! One question, though. Does ATP let you choose were you want to fly on your cross-countries?

Thanks and keep up the good work!

[/ QUOTE ]

What do you think they are, Ari-Ben?

 

[Captain_Bob]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you think they are, Ari-Ben?


[/ QUOTE ] Doh! Good one smitty...

Actually UND... It depends on where you are in the program... When getting the required XC trips for your ratings, then yes... you can pick out places you would like to go as long as they meet the requirements for that rating.

That being said... The Instructors have most likely mapped out a few great places they would like to take you to because they know it is a great cross country experience and you will be meeting the qual's at the same time. However, I know they are always open for new ideas...

As far as the Commercial Time Building Phase... As Heath said... you are at the mercy of Dispatch. As you most likely know by now, ATP operates it's schools as closely as possible to a 121 environment. Dispatchers, Maintenance bases, multiple training bases, Crew environment, emphasis on CRM and call-outs...

That being said... you go where dispatch tells you to go. Just like at the airlines. Now I know you're not at the airlines yet... and want to enjoy a few good cross-countries in the meantime, however, I'm sure you won't be too dissappointed in where they send you. For example, when I attended the program out of the the Dallas location my trips looked like this...

Dallas to Memphis (Saw the Memphis Belle) to Chicago (Airshow in progress when landing and jumpers all around us near the IAF)...
Dallas to Phoenix (shooting the ILS 30C sandwiched between 2 C-130's, and in the pattern with A4's & F-18's and with R22's buzzing all around like flies!) to Riverside CA and then over top of downtown LA on up V27 (Coastal Airway... you'd love it!), low fly-by over the Golden Gate bridge and the Alameda Shipyards to Sacremento (Road Trip to San Fran that night). Back up V27 to Portland OR. Then back south only this time we went the land route and got vectors for the Crater Lake Tour... Circled this wonderous marvel several times then back on route to SAC, RIV, PHX, ELP and back to Dallas. Overnights in PHX, RIV, SAC, ELP. Flew into Mexico for vectors to El-Paso LOC RWY4 at night! Awesome!

Dallas to Meridian Miss, then on up to Atlanta for an overnight. Back to Dallas, then back out east to Jacksonville FL (gotta hit the beach!). Flew down to Tampa for my initial-CFI (MEI) then back to Jax and back home via ATL again.

That was what I can remember...

A good time was had by all! So... being at the "mercy" of dispatch is not neccessarily a bad thing. Also... you do get to pick and file your own route within reason... if there is someone you know (freinds or family) enroute to your dispatched location, you may ask dispatch to make that a fuel/lunch stop.

Last thing I can add... is that while in the XC phase, all fuel, ground transportation (rental car, taxi, shuttle), accomodations (Hotel, apartments), and all enroute charts, approach plates, sectionals, and AFD's are covered by ATP.

Well, a lot of info for a simple question... apologies. I'm sure Heath will keep us updated on how his XC's go as well!

Bob

 

[CRJDriver]

Wow! Thanks for the info! I'm not picky as to were I want to fly, I'm sure it's going to be an awesome experience. The reason I asked was, since I will be doing my training in SAC if there might be a possibility to do a trip up to Idaho (were I'm originally from) with a stop in Reno and then from Idaho maybe to Portland and then back down to SAC. Don't know if it would be possible with the mountains in between. I guess I'll find out once I get started.

Anyway, I'm sure it will be an awesome experience and I can't wait to start