BillH
New Member
Treat it like an Airline Interview, except that you must already know all the systems and procedures of the airplane you will be flying.
Go there with full confidence in yourself. If you are lacking self confidence, they will see it and you will not get hired.
In my small class of 8, three of us got axed.
This is not a give me for any ACPP student, and those who did not go to ATP or do not know the Garmin 430 GPS will have a much harder time.
They take a very serious stance and for the most part act professionally. I had an issue with the program, however it was the exception, not the norm so I won't go into it on here. Matt and Chad who run it were professional. If you know Matt, you know he is a great guy and friendly, just don't expect him to do you any favors, he has a job to do and you must perform. I did not have to do my sim evaluation with Chad, from what I heard though he wants perfection on everything, so just be prepared.
If you decide to instruct private pilots at ATP, I highly suggest you do not UNLESS you did the private pilot program at ATP, in which case they will probably ask you to. If you get called into Phil Coopers office, or he calls you on the phone, there is a 95% chance it is going to be bad.
And if you do get let go, and you are not sure why you were let go, Jim K will be the only person at ATP who will give you the honest to goodness reason why.
First Day:
On my first day, I was early, I was wearing shorts, I was sitting in the waiting room. One of the higher ups was talking to someone in the call center right behind me, he thought he was talking quietly enough that I did not hear him, but I heard everything he said. He was commenting on the fact I was wearing shorts(It is Florida, and there were very nice dress shorts)saying, "I can't believe this guy is wearing shorts, first day on the job, and he is wearing shorts". He then went into a discussion about fat people, maybe commented on my size, saying how "they come in three different sizes". After that little discussion, he had the balls to come over to me, shake my hand and introduce himself to me, which I reciprocated, and he showed me where the classroom was. I will not say who it was.
Now at this point all I could think about is, "Damn, when can I leave this place and put on some pants?" And, "No wonder people seam to be on edge around here" (Strangely, this was NOT the issue I had with them)
After everyone showed up, Phil Cooper came in, Matt and Chad and they all introduced themselves, Matt recognized me from CFI school and welcomed me back. We then all took a quiz on the Piper Seminole. Everything on that quiz was in the supplement, and a few items from the POH. You MUST know the V speeds, the systems, and procedures. If you do NOT do well on this quiz, you days will most likely be very numbered, if not over. After the quiz we were told that was all private pilot based knowledge and we MUST know that. Matt and Chad began grading the tests and Phil went into what we should be expecting of the standardization. After the grading was complete, everyone who had two or less wrong answers went on break, the others stayed in the room, door closed and the nature of just how serious this new standardization was made clear to us all. I did not provide enough detail for 2 questions, for VSSE, put down 88 instead of 82, and skipped one question which I knew the answer to. I was then let go and the others stayed in the room for a little bit longer.
After the break, we discussed more about what to expect and told that for lunch the Owner of the company bought us all pizza as a welcoming gift.
Next few days:
Every day you will go over something and it will be followed by a quiz, a quiz which you must do very well on! They go over CATS, TSA, Paper Work, Pairing Forms, etc. At this standardization is also where they take the picture of you in the CRJ sim for the webpage when you get hired and for the name tag, which you WILL receive early on during standardization. You will also do the sim evaluation.
Sim Evaluation: It is broken down into 5 parts, first one being standard attitude flying, 2nd being maneuvers, 3rd is.... I forget, 4th is instruments, and 5th is Emergencies. In the first day you get a packet of information that tells you exactly what you must do and for what phase of the sim evaluation. TREAT THIS EVALUATION LIKE AN AIRLINE INTERVIEW SIM EVALUATION. I can not emphasize this enough!! You MUST make all your landing call outs. Gear Down Before landing Checklist, Blue Line Gumps, Gear Down Stabilized, 100ft to go, minimums, leaving MDA, etc! Especially the first three call outs, and if you gear up land the airplane during the sim eval, and never made the call outs, the best thing you can do is get up, walk out of the sim, go back to the apartment, pack your stuff up, and just leave, send Phil an email saying you resign from standardization.
Instrument Flying: Before you show up, practice on microsoft flight simulator doing Non Published Holds, VOR approaches, heck ALL of them except for ndb stuff. You MUST BE INSTRUMENT PROFICIENT before showing up. You MUST know your stuff.
Emergencies: You must know your engine out emergencies, don't EVER ditch the airplane with one good engine still running! Instrument Failures Know partial panel, know engine gauges that malfunction, for instance, loss of oil pressure, know that you need to be looking at CHT, EGT, Oil Temp as well, maybe the low oil pressure malfunctioned, say outloud, what you see and what you may need to do. Use your head, and more importantly,Don't DEVIATE FROM PROCEDURES!!!
Basic Attitude flying: This is not rocket science, constant rate climbs, descents, constant airspeed stuff, very simple on the sim. Keep in mind that it is VERY sensitive. For constant rate stuff, take the little pip on the Attitude Indicator and place it on the horizon that will give you that rate or airspeed and keep it there. Just scan between the A/I, ASI, and VSI.
Seminole Flights: Ok at this point I can not comment much further on as I elected to do Private Pilots in the DA-40 so this is where I have to leave off. If you do well in the airplane with Matt or Chad, you go up with Johnny. Johnny took over the infamous Rich Ride. Make your call outs and NEVER TAKE YOUR FEET OFF THE RUDDER PEDALS!!!!!
From my experience at standardization, ATP desperately needs more instructors, HOWEVER, they do not ACT like they do! This is NOT a give me, this is not easy, it is stressful, and above all serious. Don't start thinking that your a shoe in because they pay you for your time there, and give you a name tag almost from the start. In fact I wish they never gave me a damn name tag, it is meaningless unless you earned it. Then your walking around wearing it like your some one that your not!
Go there with full confidence in yourself. If you are lacking self confidence, they will see it and you will not get hired.
In my small class of 8, three of us got axed.
This is not a give me for any ACPP student, and those who did not go to ATP or do not know the Garmin 430 GPS will have a much harder time.
They take a very serious stance and for the most part act professionally. I had an issue with the program, however it was the exception, not the norm so I won't go into it on here. Matt and Chad who run it were professional. If you know Matt, you know he is a great guy and friendly, just don't expect him to do you any favors, he has a job to do and you must perform. I did not have to do my sim evaluation with Chad, from what I heard though he wants perfection on everything, so just be prepared.
If you decide to instruct private pilots at ATP, I highly suggest you do not UNLESS you did the private pilot program at ATP, in which case they will probably ask you to. If you get called into Phil Coopers office, or he calls you on the phone, there is a 95% chance it is going to be bad.
And if you do get let go, and you are not sure why you were let go, Jim K will be the only person at ATP who will give you the honest to goodness reason why.
First Day:
On my first day, I was early, I was wearing shorts, I was sitting in the waiting room. One of the higher ups was talking to someone in the call center right behind me, he thought he was talking quietly enough that I did not hear him, but I heard everything he said. He was commenting on the fact I was wearing shorts(It is Florida, and there were very nice dress shorts)saying, "I can't believe this guy is wearing shorts, first day on the job, and he is wearing shorts". He then went into a discussion about fat people, maybe commented on my size, saying how "they come in three different sizes". After that little discussion, he had the balls to come over to me, shake my hand and introduce himself to me, which I reciprocated, and he showed me where the classroom was. I will not say who it was.
Now at this point all I could think about is, "Damn, when can I leave this place and put on some pants?" And, "No wonder people seam to be on edge around here" (Strangely, this was NOT the issue I had with them)
After everyone showed up, Phil Cooper came in, Matt and Chad and they all introduced themselves, Matt recognized me from CFI school and welcomed me back. We then all took a quiz on the Piper Seminole. Everything on that quiz was in the supplement, and a few items from the POH. You MUST know the V speeds, the systems, and procedures. If you do NOT do well on this quiz, you days will most likely be very numbered, if not over. After the quiz we were told that was all private pilot based knowledge and we MUST know that. Matt and Chad began grading the tests and Phil went into what we should be expecting of the standardization. After the grading was complete, everyone who had two or less wrong answers went on break, the others stayed in the room, door closed and the nature of just how serious this new standardization was made clear to us all. I did not provide enough detail for 2 questions, for VSSE, put down 88 instead of 82, and skipped one question which I knew the answer to. I was then let go and the others stayed in the room for a little bit longer.
After the break, we discussed more about what to expect and told that for lunch the Owner of the company bought us all pizza as a welcoming gift.
Next few days:
Every day you will go over something and it will be followed by a quiz, a quiz which you must do very well on! They go over CATS, TSA, Paper Work, Pairing Forms, etc. At this standardization is also where they take the picture of you in the CRJ sim for the webpage when you get hired and for the name tag, which you WILL receive early on during standardization. You will also do the sim evaluation.
Sim Evaluation: It is broken down into 5 parts, first one being standard attitude flying, 2nd being maneuvers, 3rd is.... I forget, 4th is instruments, and 5th is Emergencies. In the first day you get a packet of information that tells you exactly what you must do and for what phase of the sim evaluation. TREAT THIS EVALUATION LIKE AN AIRLINE INTERVIEW SIM EVALUATION. I can not emphasize this enough!! You MUST make all your landing call outs. Gear Down Before landing Checklist, Blue Line Gumps, Gear Down Stabilized, 100ft to go, minimums, leaving MDA, etc! Especially the first three call outs, and if you gear up land the airplane during the sim eval, and never made the call outs, the best thing you can do is get up, walk out of the sim, go back to the apartment, pack your stuff up, and just leave, send Phil an email saying you resign from standardization.
Instrument Flying: Before you show up, practice on microsoft flight simulator doing Non Published Holds, VOR approaches, heck ALL of them except for ndb stuff. You MUST BE INSTRUMENT PROFICIENT before showing up. You MUST know your stuff.
Emergencies: You must know your engine out emergencies, don't EVER ditch the airplane with one good engine still running! Instrument Failures Know partial panel, know engine gauges that malfunction, for instance, loss of oil pressure, know that you need to be looking at CHT, EGT, Oil Temp as well, maybe the low oil pressure malfunctioned, say outloud, what you see and what you may need to do. Use your head, and more importantly,Don't DEVIATE FROM PROCEDURES!!!
Basic Attitude flying: This is not rocket science, constant rate climbs, descents, constant airspeed stuff, very simple on the sim. Keep in mind that it is VERY sensitive. For constant rate stuff, take the little pip on the Attitude Indicator and place it on the horizon that will give you that rate or airspeed and keep it there. Just scan between the A/I, ASI, and VSI.
Seminole Flights: Ok at this point I can not comment much further on as I elected to do Private Pilots in the DA-40 so this is where I have to leave off. If you do well in the airplane with Matt or Chad, you go up with Johnny. Johnny took over the infamous Rich Ride. Make your call outs and NEVER TAKE YOUR FEET OFF THE RUDDER PEDALS!!!!!
From my experience at standardization, ATP desperately needs more instructors, HOWEVER, they do not ACT like they do! This is NOT a give me, this is not easy, it is stressful, and above all serious. Don't start thinking that your a shoe in because they pay you for your time there, and give you a name tag almost from the start. In fact I wish they never gave me a damn name tag, it is meaningless unless you earned it. Then your walking around wearing it like your some one that your not!
