A Running ATP experience thread

ozziecat35 said:
Another flight yesterday after getting canceled due to weather on Monday. Joel and I blasted off to the west towards Dekalb, engine failure and secure at 5,500'. Airstart and then the PMEL maneuvers that all went well (Steeps/Slow Flight/Pwr Off Stalls/Pwr On Stalls/VMC Demo/Emergency Descent). We then set up for the ILS to runway 9 at Aurora (KARR) single engine, it was a little sloppy as Joel let me play with flap settings before setting me straight (Flaps 25/about 20" MP on the good engine will set you up nicely for the ILS FYI), went missed and back out West for another try, this one went much better. We then circled to the South and landed single engine on 27, then did a short field takeoff on 33, engine failure in the upwind (simulated) and single engine pattern back to 33, which was ugly...too close, too high, I landed nicely, but the approach was not pretty.

We headed back to Dupage and setup for a short field to Rwy 10, but during the Gear Down checklist, did not get a gear light for the right main. Switched the bulbs, no change, jiggled the airplane around, no change, interestingly cycling the nav lights got the indicator to come on. We were confident it was an indicator issue, so continued the approach. I got a bit slow over the fence and in turn actually heard the stall horn in the flare (which is apparently not supposed to happen in the Seminole) and dropped it on...not the prettiest thing in the world, but it's still in one piece.

Maneuvers are looking good, so no need to work on them tomorrow, just single engine ILS approaches and single engine pattern work along with short field landings tomorrow. Checkride on Saturday!!
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which were you flying 265at or 259at?
 
Bud01 said:
which were you flying 265at or 259at?
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The gear light issue was in 264.

They've been rotated out, 263 & 264 are current. 266 was here a few weeks ago. I did my ride with Leslie in 264. Leslie is great. Very low key, but will hold you the PTS. No more no less. I asked her for constructive criticism after the ride and she gave it to me and a very direct, but helpful way. I have no trepidation whatsoever about my CMEL ride with her in the next few months.
 
ozziecat35 said:
The gear light issue was in 264.

They've been rotated out, 263 & 264 are current. 266 was here a few weeks ago. I did my ride with Leslie in 264. Leslie is great. Very low key, but will hold you the PTS. No more no less. I asked her for constructive criticism after the ride and she gave it to me and a very direct, but helpful way. I have no trepidation whatsoever about my CMEL ride with her in the next few months.
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I loved her for an examiner. I felt like she kept me as the instructor on my toes and make sure all of my students were well prepared for the ride. Any advice she gives you listen to.

I think 265 and 259 were the ones i had gear issues with. the local mechanic there told me because of all the gear swings they do that those senors are proned to fail.
 
Well, just got done with 4 days of Crew Cross Country in the Seminole...good times'ish. I swear, whoever designed the seats in the PA44 was a masochist, cause after about 2 hours enroute, I'm done. Since I'm a self paced student, I only had a long 4 days weekend to knock some of this out, so they brought two other Chicago guys back off of their XC's and divided up flying with me at 2 days a piece, which gave them some time at home too. Here's how my schedule went.

Day 1: DPA-OMA-EAU-DPA
Day 2: DPA-BWG-EYE-MQY (I got to shoot my first actual instrument approach that wasn't under the hood. I did the ILS into BWG rwy 3, broke out well above minimums, but still very cool to put the training to use.
Day 3:MQY-LZU-EYE-DPA
Day 4: DPA-FOD-DPA (Lot's of weather, hence the out and back and no 3rd leg. Had we done another leg, I don't think we would have been able to make it back into Dupage, so probably a good thing we just came back. I think we had over 2 hours of actual IMC out and back on these 2 flights...good times. When I landed in FOD, the ASOS reported OVC @ 6000, however it was more like BKN 2500 SKT 1700 RN. Had a solid 10 knot crosswind on landing...I think I'm the most confident in my ADM and overall abilities then I've ever been, which is a cool feeling.
 
ozziecat35 said:
Well, just got done with 4 days of Crew Cross Country in the Seminole...good times'ish. I swear, whoever designed the seats in the PA44 was a masochist, cause after about 2 hours enroute, I'm done. Since I'm a self paced student, I only had a long 4 days weekend to knock some of this out, so they brought two other Chicago guys back off of their XC's and divided up flying with me at 2 days a piece, which gave them some time at home too. Here's how my schedule went.

Day 1: DPA-OMA-EAU-DPA
Day 2: DPA-BWG-EYE-MQY (I got to shoot my first actual instrument approach that wasn't under the hood. I did the ILS into BWG rwy 3, broke out well above minimums, but still very cool to put the training to use.
Day 3:MQY-LZU-EYE-DPA
Day 4: DPA-FOD-DPA (Lot's of weather, hence the out and back and no 3rd leg. Had we done another leg, I don't think we would have been able to make it back into Dupage, so probably a good thing we just came back. I think we had over 2 hours of actual IMC out and back on these 2 flights...good times. When I landed in FOD, the ASOS reported OVC @ 6000, however it was more like BKN 2500 SKT 1700 RN. Had a solid 10 knot crosswind on landing...I think I'm the most confident in my ADM and overall abilities then I've ever been, which is a cool feeling.
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Loved doin the crew cross countries! Looks like I am just slightly ahead of you.. I just went through cfi school .. PM me if you want tips on it, I wish I knew a lot of things beforehand!
 
dakrt23 said:
Loved doin the crew cross countries! Looks like I am just slightly ahead of you.. I just went through cfi school .. PM me if you want tips on it, I wish I knew a lot of things beforehand!
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Dakrt23 - will you post those tips for others behind you? Maybe in a new thread? Would help a lot of us. Thx.
 
Counselor said:
Dakrt23 - will you post those tips for others behind you? Maybe in a new thread? Would help a lot of us. Thx.
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I didnt want to clutter up someone elses thread with unsolicited advice but in retrospect it could help everyone if I give the short version...

My advice is walk into CFI school as an EXPERT private pilot... not a master areodynamicist, meteorologist, or the like... just an EXPERT private pilot. My ground school consisted of some topics so far outside the scope of what was on my checkride (stall characteristics of a delta wing for at least 30 min) that i really wish the time was spent on more relative subjects (obscure metar designations for one). I was first in my class to checkride and I did not feel ready. I busted when i flip flopped the freq's when closing a flight plan over a VOR with different transmit/recieve freq's... private pilot BS but something i hadnt even thought about in a couple years. Also i asked to look up a couple metar designations (BLDU?) and was denied... either way... if you do not feel ready DO NOT GO... if you opt to go anyways... discontinue at the first sign of trouble. ATP doesnt care if your ready or not, they have a schedule to keep. The other guy that was supposed to checkride same day as me bailed and they resched him 3 weeks out... he has plenty of time to study and no bust (yet?) so maybe he got the better end of the deal. My roommate had same examiner as me but 24 hours later and brushed up on what i busted on and passed first try, if the roles are reversed maybe i walk out with CFI rating first shot. The more you can master private pilot basics the more time you can focus on FOI's and endorsements which really are not all that bad.

As for the flight, depends on the examiner but a common theme i heard from others in my class is they were made to feel unusually nervous with these CFI examiners for some reason... so the old checkride addage of "just relax" holds true 10x more on the CFI checkride. Plenty of guys get through in the first shot so dont let the negativity of the instructor telling you that you will bust on this and bust on that get you down (if i had 1$ everytime i heard i was gonna bust..) just know the basics through and through and correct any weak areas before you do ANYTHING else, then study foi/endorsements hard, relax and do your thing on the flight and you should be fine.
 
Hey ozzie.. reading your posts reminds me a lot of my experience at PDK.. small location (only 2 instructors there), exactly the same SIM with the Seneca, and I was also self paced.. I started on December 28 last year and just finished about a week ago.. took me 8 1/2 months. It worked out perfect for me since I have a full time job, I travel extensively for work as well and have a familiy. Put your best effort.. even though there was a time where it passed a month without flying, I ended up not failing any checkrides. You can take a look at my experience at http://abeshangar.blogspot.com/

Cheers!
 
Ozzie, I was wondering how you been doing man, what has come out of the whole MSU/ATP issue, etc, I will continue to read.

ATP/ASU is going well for me, flying is perfectly awesome, I think I logged about 10 hours so far, just trying to get used to the studying part of the academics...
 
I used to instruct for ATP back when the location was at Aurora. Leslie is by far the fairest examiner in the Chicago area.
 
Ok, time to resurrect this thread. Once I got the next batch of VA money, we're back to flying, and oh how quickly things unwind! Went out on Saturday morning with my instructor for a short out and back XC since it had been 5 weeks since my last flight. DPA-JNV-RFD-DPA. Once back in Chicago I was paired up with a freshly minted instrument student in Chicago and we launched for SGF in 264AT. We were moving this plane down to Arlington, TX for mx to correct the top comm stack and a few other squawks. Landed in Branson after 3.6 on the Hobbs. We landed around 4 pm, so by the time we would have made it to Dallas (GKY) it would have been well after sunset. Flight ops decides to put us up for the night at the La Quinta near the airport. We ended up getting dinner at the Springfield Brewing Company.

Launch at 7 am out of Springfield. Right after takeoff the door comes un-latched and is partially open. I'm not listening to that for 3 hours, back to SGF we go! Departure back to tower, tower lets us secure on the runway, then back in the air...that was fun. Cruise at 8,000 down to GKY, Sasie3 arrival, wheels down at 945 am. Here's where the fun starts...

The airplane that we are supposed to pick up hasn't been fixed yet, and we can't keep the same plane since it has some issues too. Fast forward to me and my XC partner sitting at the Hampton Inn until tomorrow morning. Yep, what a way to spend a day... Just goes to show you always need to be ready for a wrench on the plans here...
 
I was wondering what happened your updates. Thanks for posting. Atleast you are back in the air. When is your next checkride?
 
Next one will be the Commercial Multi, probably mid to late January.

To finish up the recent update. We got work around 4 pm that the original plane was now fixed, and we would be taking it back to Chicago on Monday morning. I call my boss and tell him I'm taking a day off and proceed to veg. out on the bed in the hotel for the rest of the day watching TV. We get back to Arlington at 630, preflight, pick up our clearance to Springfield Branson, then it's off on the Texoma 1 departure. I really enjoyed flying into Dallas and getting to fly the arrival and DP's. While we were on with Regional Departure, a Citation came on freq. and about 5 minutes later the controller advises him that the tower from whatever airport he just left is saying they left someone behind...U-Turn! Thought it was funny.

Anyways, we climb through the overcast layer to 7 thousand feet, right at the tops and get some amazing views cloud-surfing, about 30 minutes of actual IMC. Refuel in SGF, then my leg back home to DPA. Same kind of deal, about an hour of IMC on the way to STL, and some potential for icing, as the temp was inching down to 0 C. I logged my fastest ground speed in the Seminole this flight, at 182 knots thanks to 30 knots on the tail. Smooth landing back in Chicago and now I'm off again for a couple weeks for Thanksgiving and then vacation for a week.
 
I don't see a problem with the "zero to hero" programs as long as the pilot goes in with the right mind-set and fully prepared from a lot of studying on their own. I've noticed a recurring trend in flight training. The guys who wash out are usually slackers. My school sees a bunch of ATP "washouts" and they usually end up being problem children here too. At the same time, I've seen guys go through the program and come out just as bad and unsafe as when they went in. Its all up to the individual.
 
Squeezed in an out and back to BWG on Sunday the 8th. Ceiling's were pretty low at DPA early, so we waited and I knocked out a sim with my CFII. Once the weather improved a bit, my partner and I talked to Flt. Ops and they changed our destination from MQY to BWG due to convective activity south of Kentucky. I was PF on the leg out, had some potential for icing leaving Chicago, nothing too bad but enough to keep you on your toes. We were IMC from about 900 AGL through 4,500. Shot the ILS 3 to BWG, broke out well above minimums, but still good experience doing the whole PT & crossing the FAF in IMC. Quick bite to eat and back to Chicago. We were on high alert for ice from Terre Haute north. No major issues and another ILS into DPA. One more day of flying and I'm done with my Crew XC's!
 
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