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

The cross country portion was a blast for me too. From Dallas I went out to Pheonix and Las Vegas and overnighted in Pheonix twice. I've got great pictures of the Grand Canyon and the Vegas strip. I made it to Florida and all up and down their coastlines overnighting in Jacksonville several times. Also made it up to North Carolina, Atlanta(overnighted twice), Chicago, and Kentucky (overnighted in Bowling Green).

We never requested anywhere but they seemed to always be trying to get us somewhere new. Also it was nice to go to locations with fuel accounts and housing that was prearranged.

Have fun with you x-country phase.
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Bob,
Thanks...I had to get one plug in for the school. We all know they're both good places to learn. I'm at Ari now and loving it.
 
Very cool thread....I was recommended to ATP by my flight instructor who was an ATP graduate, but this thread helped me make my decision...I start on April 10th in Riverside. Can't wait!
 
Update to the 3/28 post, passed the FOI with a 100%! Yeah, baby, YEAH!
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3/29 Tuesday - Day 30

Flew 2.1 today in the twin, FTY-AHN-LZU-RYY-FTY. We did approaches at all and a landing at AHN. I'm feeling way better about my skills as the flying progresses. The radios have slowed down and aren't a problem, landings seem natural, and overall I'm feeling good. Just hope I don't pull a bone-headed move and fail my checkride next Tuesday by putting flaps down on a single-engine approach like I did today! DOH!

3/30 Wednesday - Day 31

Great day of flying. We made a last minute decision to fly up to Owensboro for some good 'ol Moonlight Bar-B-Q!
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Mmmm, mmm. Came back 40 pounds heavier gross weight!
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Got a little time of actual in the clouds, then when the clouds dissipated we went up a little higher and it was smooth as silk. A very pleasurable 4.9 in the seminole.

Also made it to the bottom of a page in the big logbook, always an exciting experience!
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TT - 113.7, MEL - 31.2, 2.3 Actual, 17.9 Simulated Inst., 40.5 FTD Inst., 70.0 Xcntry.

Hard to believe just a month ago I only had 48 TT!

Until next time,
Heath
 
[ QUOTE ]
Very cool thread....I was recommended to ATP by my flight instructor who was an ATP graduate, but this thread helped me make my decision...I start on April 10th in Riverside. Can't wait!

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent! Glad I could help influence you in that direction!
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You'll LOVE the experience!

Heath
 
Just to add about the x-country flying, as Bob pointed out, during the training portion, you can usually fly anywhere you want the gets in the time or distance needed for the proposed flight. Once you're at dispatch's call, I've been told that they're very cool and that if you have some places you'd really like to go they will work with you.

Yeah, smitty, everyone knows that Ari's soooo superior because they let you fly anywhere without dispatch. Be sure and let us know what it costs you when you have to pay for your own fuel costs above, what?, $1.90?
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I never said they were superior. And no, it's a $1.30. Which does defer you from flying further, yes. Don't put words in my mouth, please.
 
Keep in mind that you are going to pay for the difference in fuel cost at either school (or any school for that matter). The difference is that Ari keeps their program pricing to the student as low as possible, so they do not have additional money available to pay the difference between on-field contracted fuel and off-field public fuel rates. ATP's program prices have the additional fuel cost already built into the base rate.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
 
Thanks for the thread Heath. I am just looking at getting started with ATP and have found this to be extemely helpful in making my decision on where to go.
Please look for a PM from me.
Thanks
J
 
[ QUOTE ]
I never said they were superior. And no, it's a $1.30. Which does defer you from flying further, yes. Don't put words in my mouth, please.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, by your own admission, your post was a "plug" for Ari-Ben, implying that they are better because you can choose the destination of your cross-country flights. So I don't think I put any words in your mouth at all. I have no problem at all with you posting here, Smitty, but please leave the "plugs" for Ari-Ben out of my ATP thread, and I'll refrain from "plugging" ATP in the Ari-Ben forum. Cool?

Heath
 
And on with the blog...

3/31 Thursday - Day 32

Did 3.5 in the sim today practicing approaches in preparation for the instrument checkride scheduled for next Tuesday. Then we filled out all the paperwork for the checkride and did ground school review for the possible information on the oral portion. Then reviewed info about how the cross-country phase will go and was give two videos on the Citation to watch in preparation for the 3.0 in it during the x-country phase.
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Just wanted to add a little note here -

I've read several times in the ATP forum of people accusing ATP of "teaching to pass the checkride," implying that they only teach you a gouge of info that the know the DE has asked in previous checkrides and then fly you on the approaches you'll fly then over and over. Maybe this happens at some locations or with some instructors, but my experience couldn't be further from that. I've gone through two instructors and neither of them has ever presented me with information to expect to be asked from my scheduled DE. Furthermore, I've not even flown a single approach at his home airport, where I'm definitely going to have to do one, or at the nearby airport (KCHA) where I'm nearly certain to have to fly one as well. I've only got 2.6 of seminole time left to prepare for the checkride, and we're going to practice the likely approaches then. But, to this point, in the sim and in the real plane we've just flown to numerous different airports and flown as many new and different approaches as my instructors could throw at us. This with the intent of training us to be good pilots in any given situation. And for the oral, he's just drilled us on everything from the ASA Oral Exam Study Guide.

So, I really feel that we've gotten our money's worth so far and have been trained to be good all around pilots, not just pilots who can pass a checkride.

But as I said before, individual experiences may vary and this could be happening at other locations or with other instructors, just not my experience at ATL.

Till next time,
Heath
 
I'm kinda puzzled as to how atp kan take you from a total newbie into a full fledged (ahem) CFI in 90 days when most other academies offer 12 and 24 month programs to do the same, I must be missing something...
I'm not sure if I should post in this thread but didn't feel like starting a new one for such a small question.
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[ QUOTE ]
I'm kinda puzzled as to how atp kan take you from a total newbie into a full fledged (ahem) CFI in 90 days when most other academies offer 12 and 24 month programs to do the same, I must be missing something...

[/ QUOTE ] Hi there, I hope this answers your question satisfactorily.

First of all, ATP doesn't take you from Total Newbie to CFII in 90 days. There is a Pre-requisite of having a PPL, 75 hrs TT, and 25 XC.

Secondly, many of those 12-24 month programs are part 141 syllubus driven programs, whereas ATP, Ari-Ben, & SkyMates, along with the majority of the nations FBO's (small flight schools) are part 61 programs. This allows for more self study, self-paced, and flexible programs.

Hope that helps,

Bob
 
That's right... they also do a lot of VA stuff so that has to be 141. Apologies.

Oh yeah...

Bad Kitty! Baaad Kitty!
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One small, meaningless correction...but ATP now requires 85TT....I know because I start time-building on Monday!
 
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Doh! Thanks for the correction Adam! Yes it was 85 when I went through it as well... I typed way too fast without proofing that post. I appreciate the correction!
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...Heath... hurry up and post again before I get myself into more trouble here!
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