ATP - My Experience

socal

New Member
As a once-regular poster who is now (thankfully) too busy to check in regularly, I wanted to pass along my experiences at ATP.

I too used Jetcareers as my primary resource to get info on all of the flight schools. After visiting a number of them, speaking to the owners, I chose to attend ATP.

That decision was one of the best I have ever made. I finished the Airline Career Pilot Program in what they tell me is a record of 59 days. During that time I took all of the writtens, passed every checkride, and flew cross country from Sacremento, Ca. to Jacksonville, Fl. and then all up and down the east coast (Washington, DC to Miami). All in all, I landed in 13 different states over the course of three wonderful and intensive weeks. I can truly say that those cross countries helped me to become the pilot that I am today. I can also tell you how nice it was to land in some city and have car and hotel arrangements already taken care of by dispatch. After a long day of flying, the last thing I would want to do is try to find a hotel and a car to get me there.

After completeing the program, I was hired as a multi-engine instructor just seven days later. Now, just over one year after starting the program as a private pilot with 80 hours, I have almost 900 hours TT, 770 Multi, and 620 hours of dual given in the Seminole. And all that was accomplished despite answering phones for five and a half weeks in Jax and taking three weeks off to get married and honeymoon in Mexico.

If you are willing to work hard, have a good personality and possess good pilot skills, the transition from private pilot to airline ready can be extremely fast. In fact, I will start interviewing at the regionals in the next few months.

I would also say that perhaps the greatest advantage in flying and instructing here at ATP is the caliber of pilots that you are exposed to on a daily basis. Instead of teaching primary students, I spend my days prepping airline pilots and military pilots (most of whom are future airline pilots) for their ATP checkride. I have flown with Airbus, 737, RJ, King Air, Gulfstream, Citation, Shorts, Fokker, Lear, Huey, C-141, C-130, KC-10, EA6B, F14, F16, and F18 pilots -- I even had the pleasure of prepping one of the Blue Angels for his ATP! And not a week goes by that one of these highly respected pilots doesn't offer to write me a letter of recommendation. If I were working anywhere else besides ATP, this would be unheard of.


By all means, look around at all of your options. But, I can guarantee that ATP will deliver everything they promise.


Travis
 
Socal, that's awesome. Your post even farther solidifies my decision to attend ATP for flight training. They really do offer the best all around package for flight training, from cost, to multi time, to aircraft maintenance, to actual x-country flights, to networking opportunities, and more.(not to sound like a commercial, but that's how I see it) Please keep us posted on how your job hunting goes. After all, that's what we're all in this for.
 
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