Aerosim Flight Academy vs ATP vs Local Community College

D

Daniel

Well-Known Member
Hi my name is Daniel,

Im currently a student at MCCC or Mercer County Community College enrolled in there aviation flight technology associate. Im currently taking core classes and not flying in my first semester although I will supposedly start in my second (something I don't believe because of the terrible school management).

I recently got in touch with both schools and they both gave me offers making ATP the cheaper option.
Although here is the plan that I thought would work is that I would continue school as a college student and then fly at the same time. When I spoke to my ATP advisor he said it would be very possible.

The only cert that I hold is a class 1 medical and around 4 hours in a 152 and around 13 hours in a glider.
Im 18. My ultimate goal is to fly anyway,shape or form by January and working to the airlines. Im aware of the whole big school thing but honestly I just want to fly no matter what. Im planning to get to the regionals and then straight to majors hopefully.

So my question is. Is it a good idea to balance ATP and college at the same time? or should I wait till i start flying with my community college? or wait till i finish my associates to start flying?

Thanks
 
I did school and flying at the same time but I can't really comment on ATP's training. I went to a school with a flight program included so some of my classes were ground school and labs were flight block times so it worked out pretty well. I'm pretty sure that ATP has a rather stressful training program that is geared to get you zero to hero in the fastest possible time...which is definitely not something I could see someone suggesting doing and flying at the same time...and effectively working if you plan on having a job.

To be honest with you, I'd ditch the whole ATP school (not that they produce bad pilots) and find an FBO and/or flight school that has rentals + instructors nearby. Chances are if you're near an airport where ATP is there are decent options available to learn other than them. You'll save money that way and be able to build a schedule YOU want. Trust me, some of those small flight schools with less airplanes look like garbage but are very good in the long run. I'd at least tour multiple options and see what they have to offer. You're young so I wouldn't rush things too much. Pretty sure the lowest age the R-ATP allows is 21 so you've got 3 years to burn anyways. May as well get the education now for the long run at the majors. Once you finish the Associates, start your Bachelors.

Although I like keeping your big future goal in mind, make sure you set realistic goals to achieve for yourself otherwise you're going to get frustrated at the long road ahead to an airline. I've seen many of my co-workers leave my flight school, to another school, to another school, to a 135 carrier in the span of a year because they can't handle having to build 1500 hours and they're unhappy at literally every job. It's almost rather depressing. Some might be able to help you get an idea of how ATP runs currently rather than getting the typical recruiter kool-aid.

Good luck man...welcome to JC.
 
College degree, bro.

Seriously. Some of the airlines are more than happy to go "ab initio" rather than lower the requirement.

I'm just the messenger.
 
I did school, flying, and work all at the same time. You'll want to get your bachelor's. I stuck all my classes on two days a week and just flew and worked on the other 5 days. It's tough but it's doable.
 
You should read the other threads re ATP. You will learn a lot. As super Tacco said...ATP is ball busting pace and you WILL NOT have time for anything else. IN fact, they discourge other studies.
And as stated above, you have lots of time...take your time.
If you are so inclined you could just bang out a SEL comm and get some simple flying jobs that will work with school. LIke skydiving, traffic watch, banner towing etc.
One thing is FOR SURE, if you are planning to go to a part121 regional someday....they will not care WHAT equip you flew to get your 1500TT. They just want the 1500 and some multi...
Keep in mind in a 2 yrs time things could completely change and you would need a PhD in Space Science with 5 lunar landings...but for now you can get in with just the mins.
If you hven't seen it, go to climbto350com. Its an aviation job site that costs a few bucks each month to see the details of each job, but everyone and their brother posts on that site. My point being that you can begin to get a feel for whats out there and their mins.
Good luck and get the AS degree for sure now.
 
Finish your degree. Finish your degree. Finish your degree. I'm 28, working full time as a regional FO, in an Army National Guard unit that drills more than an average unit, and just started to go back to school part-time. Trust me when I tell you that you do NOT want to go that route. Finish school while you're young and it's easy to do. Then start to work on your flying on a schedule that will allow you to focus on school first. Use your enthusiasm to work hard and graduate college a year early rather than try to tackle an ATP like training program while you're also trying to focus on college.

Best of luck and welcome to the community. Message me anytime if you ever have any questions.
 
It would be a very bad idea to try and balance ATP and school at the same time. We would warn people not to try and do it, they still would anyway, eventually it would start causing problems. If the higher ups found out the gloves would really come off and they'd force the student to stay exactly on the program schedule, which is intense. The CFI's normally have a little leeway at helping schedule around personal events, but as soon as it comes out that someone has a job/school/other commitment management will dig in hard. At best it will end up costing you more flight time, at worst (and more likely) you'll get kicked out with 5-6 busts on your record and some awkward, unusable, and incomplete combination of ratings at the cost of $70k.

Not to mention the damage to your transcript on the other side of things.... I suppose the larger question is do you want to train at a school with a mentality like this? There's better options out there.
 
No idea. Unless things have drastically changed in the past few years I don't see where you'd have the time to do it.
 
ShyFlyer said:
How does "management" feel about a job like Uber?
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I've heard of quite a few students at multiple locations (especially when they live in housing) doing Uber or Lyft to make some money on the side. Haven't heard of any issues with students choosing to do that. Considering you determine your own availability with both jobs, not a bad way to get some income while at ATP.
 
I'm guessing you are doing the MCCC program at Infinity? I'm not too familiar with their program but if you attended ATP instead, why would you continue the classes at MCCC? The only benefit I can see from the associates in aviation is lowering the ATP minimums to 1250. You're only 18, like everyone has said, focus on your bachelors. The three months of instructing you save with minimums at 1250 instead of 1500 is irrelevant considering you have three years til you would qualify anyway. You could train with ATP now and get your bachelors online while instructing or working towards 1500.

I would say online education is doable while attending ATP but not on-campus. Is it a good idea? Probably not. It would be up to you to make sure your flight training is priority one, you do not want to start falling behind while juggling both at the same time. You're only 18, you could just go and get your bachelors in something outside aviation on-campus and four years later enroll at ATP or one of the other schools. Or you could complete your flight training now and complete your degree online while building time. If I was 18 again, I'd personally choose the latter, but that's just me.
 
flybywp said:
I'm guessing you are doing the MCCC program at Infinity? I'm not too familiar with their program but if you attended ATP instead, why would you continue the classes at MCCC? The only benefit I can see from the associates in aviation is lowering the ATP minimums to 1250. You're only 18, like everyone has said, focus on your bachelors. The three months of instructing you save with minimums at 1250 instead of 1500 is irrelevant considering you have three years til you would qualify anyway. You could train with ATP now and get your bachelors online while instructing or working towards 1500.

I would say online education is doable while attending ATP but not on-campus. Is it a good idea? Probably not. It would be up to you to make sure your flight training is priority one, you do not want to start falling behind while juggling both at the same time. You're only 18, you could just go and get your bachelors in something outside aviation on-campus and four years later enroll at ATP or one of the other schools. Or you could complete your flight training now and complete your degree online while building time. If I was 18 again, I'd personally choose the latter, but that's just me.
Click to expand...
I agree with flybywp, not a good idea to do flight school and college. Get your CFI then instruct and enroll.

Uber and ATP shouldn't be a problem.

I completed training at ATP and then instructed for a local 61 school while doing a social science (criminal justice) degree full time at a community college. I was able to manage the course load while instructing nights and weekends. If you're good on ratemyprofessors.com and your registration game is on point you can instruct full time, pull 15 credit hours, and just hit campus 3 days a week.

You can make double an hour what you might at ATP while setting your own schedule and charging for ground.

You can graduate with hundreds of hours and an inexpensive, paid off degree.

I got a lot out of brick and mortar. In class discussions changed the way I look at things and I made some friends. Made me a better person. I graduated on time with 800 hours. You can outdo me easily.
 
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