couple questions

tommyk

Well-Known Member
hello im pretty new to this site but i have received quite alot of information on here and now iam seeking some more..so i initially was thinking about going to ATP for all my training but i figured right now there is no rush into getting my ratings but i really want to fly. just recently i started flying at air orlando out of ORL, i like it and all but iam not progressing and flying as much as i wud like to. now iam thinking about going to ATP but i only have 12 hours or so i was wondering what you guys think i sud do. finish up my private at air orlando? or just go to atp and do the rest of my ppl there and get way more hours (85) than at air orlando where i will only get close to 50 for the same price and have a more structured schedule of flying?
 
I would say finish your PPL at the FBO. Make sure this is what you want to do. Find another FBO if that one is not working for you or change instructors.
 
Hi TommyK, I'm sort of in your shoes as well. I'm from Gainesville, FL, and I trained at University Air Center and FBO at GNV. I haven't been progressing as much as I liked to as well because of work. I only have 15 hours in a 172. I'm going to ATP in JAX in October. I plan on doing it because it is more structured. What aircraft do you fly? How long have you been training? How's Orlando? havent been there in a while.
 
Hi TommyK, I'm sort of in your shoes as well. I'm from Gainesville, FL, and I trained at University Air Center and FBO at GNV. I haven't been progressing as much as I liked to as well because of work. I only have 15 hours in a 172. I'm going to ATP in JAX in October. I plan on doing it because it is more structured. What aircraft do you fly? How long have you been training? How's Orlando? havent been there in a while.
If your set on going to atp and doing it in Florida, think about Stuart or perhaps Pensacola. Just go somewhere far away from white shirts.
 
Hi BillH. Thanks for the advice, but kind of can't change it now anyway if I wanted to. I've already got my deposit down for my start date in JAX. I have heard a lot of bad things about CRG, but then again I have heard good things. Just like the other stations of ATP. Granted I have heard a lot more bad things about JAX, but I'll just give it a shot. One of my primary resons for choosing CRG is because it is closer to home. I work for ASA as a ticket agent in GNV, and have been talking to pilots about JAX and I've heard some good and bad things from them as well. I'm going to go ahead and give it my all and we will see what happens. I do appreciate the comments and suggestions though. I will keep the forum up to date my progression and if you have any more suggestions or comments please let me know. :)
 
I would continue with the FBO route through you PPL. I actually went to ATP in ATL for my PPL and everything else. If you are looking for a structured program ATP's PPL program is not the way to go. You will get done in 2 months but they cover things as the feel like it not in a structured kind of way. Supposedly they are going to change this and make it more like the ACPP when they actually have lesson plans. Either way you go have fun and study you butt off.
 
One of the issues I may face at living away from home going to ATP is my lack of cooking skills. Hopefully I'll be able to learn before October 6th, otherwise its going to be hot pockets and ramon noodles. lol!!!
 
hey terry, i fly a 172sp at ORL i love it here in orlando there is so much to do on my off time. so you have 15 hours? is ATP going to honor those hours and maybe cut down the price a lil?
 
I would recommend that you finish your private at the FBO, and don't feel that you need to rush it. Try to read as much as you can about aviation when you are not flying. The private is the foundation of everything that comes later, so don't feel you need to blow through it in 60 days.
 
Hey Tommy. From what I understand, and anyone here can correct me on this because I'm not experienced enough, the hours do carry-over no matter where you go. As far as decreasing the price, I don't think so, you would have to talk to an ATP representative about that one. If I could I would go the FBO route, but the work I do requires a lot of hours that I just can't get the time to train, and I think it makes my flight instructor frustrated about it. I have talked to him about, but I sense that he is not keen with me having so much spacing between lessons. Thats why I choose to take a leave of absence from the company I work for Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA, a regional airline carrier), which I am granted, and go the fast route through ATP's program. I hear a lot of negative talk about it, but I'm up for the challenge. Let me know how everything goes, and I'll also keep you updated. :)
 
If you have the time i recommend a school like ATP over a local FBO. If you get 85 hours PPL at a local FBO i think it would come out close to the same $ even though some of those hours will be safety pilot. now you could save a little $ at an FBO if you shop around. The FBO I started at would not have saved me any $. A little pricey but they had a great maint dept and fleet which I liked to see. At my old FBO I was flying 1-2 times a week which was a bad idea for me.

I just started DAB and this was my schedule so far. Monday we studied all day for PPL Written. (Although I find the written to be a huge waste of time It does make you get a good grasp on just about all that your PPL has to offer before you even start flying unless you just memorize answers and don't study the text book. I did both)
Tuesday studied a little and took written. On Wednesday I flew 8-10 then came back at 1330 for ground school which ended at 1700. Same for Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I had a flight scheduled but was cancelled due to weather no ground.

My old FBO my schedule was fly from like 8-10 a little debriefing afterwards and then a home pc based ground lesson that night for like 3 hours. I think the Cessna center king schools ground lessons are crappy compared to being in a classroom environment where you can ask questions etc..

At my old FBO if you were to ask another instructor for help they wouldn't give you the time of day because they wouldn't get paid for it even if it was just a 5min question. At ATP I have gone to several instructors and they answered any and all questions I had. ALso at ATP the buddy system is really nice because I have a guy who is going all the way through the program like me so Ill always have someone who is on the same steps with me to study with.

Im not trying to push solely ATP although I think its a great school so far, but they do have their problems like any school. Only doing my flight training 2 days a week while school full time and a part time job did not work at all for me. I stopped my training and graduated then just pulled out a sallie mae loan for flight school.
 
Hi Kalikiano. I agree as you do that ATP as does any flight school has it's positives and negatives. The FBO I went to was ok, except it just didn't seem like the instructor and I connected. I couldn't fly that much because I had a full time job which assigned me mandatory overtime a lot. I went to school part-time taking online classes and finally got my A.A. a few months ago. It just came to a point where I said to myself, "Just Do It", and signed up for ATP. I like the concept where you train about every day, full immersion. Same with me, at the FBO. It was train for like 2 hrs, not get a real thourough debriefing and then go home and practice on flight simulator. It all depends on what is right for you. In my case, a specialized aviation school such as ATP I believe is right for me. How is it at DAB?
 
....Oh and when I think about it, I didn't even get a preflight briefing at my FBO. It was kinda like I walked in, met the instructor, and he was telling me what were going to learn inflight. There are a lot of distractions up there I'm sure you know, so it became difficult at times. As for the post flight briefing, it consisted of: "How are you going to pay for this? Thats $200.00.
 
Just a little word of advice for you Terry. You can not rely on anyone else for your success, either at ATP or at an F.B.O. I have students who think they should be spoon fed everything and be taught everything there is to know without them requiring any study at home and they also don't want to spend a lot of time during ground class...
I have other students who call me the miracle worker for getting them to such a high level in their training, and they completely fail to realize that it was really 90% themselves that got them there. Because I went to ATP, my mindset is that it is my own responsibility that I learn what I learn and simply don't rely on others for anything. This mostly goes for knowledge. As for aeronautical proficiency, this is where the flight instructor needs to do a decent job. And you know, everything your instructor teaches you is written down somewhere. If you don't agree with the instructor, look up the way it is supposed to be done. And finally...

The second you start blaming others for your own failures, is the day you need to decide on a different career.
 
I was not blaming anyone else for my own failures. I'm the type of person where if I did do something wrong or if I contributed to the failure I would admit to it right away. I'm not blaming my instructor, I'm just saying that we somehow did not connect with eachother on the subject. My instructor is a great guy, but as for his teaching abilities, maybe it's just me, and it could very well be, just did not seem satisfactory. I can't speak professioanlly on this since I have not been educated yet on CFI principles; however, I just go with my gut feeling. Since I signed up for ATP, I have been studying everyday, and everytime I get in a break at work. I do realize my training is my responsibility and I totally agree with it. If it is something I really want, I'm the one who has to go for it with all I got. I'm a little unsure how to "take" your last post BillH, respectfully I wasn't trying to blame anyone on my last post. :)
 
I was not blaming anyone else for my own failures. I'm the type of person where if I did do something wrong or if I contributed to the failure I would admit to it right away. I'm not blaming my instructor, I'm just saying that we somehow did not connect with eachother on the subject. My instructor is a great guy, but as for his teaching abilities, maybe it's just me, and it could very well be, just did not seem satisfactory. I can't speak professioanlly on this since I have not been educated yet on CFI principles; however, I just go with my gut feeling. Since I signed up for ATP, I have been studying everyday, and everytime I get in a break at work. I do realize my training is my responsibility and I totally agree with it. If it is something I really want, I'm the one who has to go for it with all I got. I'm a little unsure how to "take" your last post BillH, respectfully I wasn't trying to blame anyone on my last post. :)
I was simply giving you advice to follow down the road you chose. Keep that attitude, it will serve you well. I've lost a few students due to my ways, so you are right, sometimes you just need a different instructor.
 
Hi Kalikiano. I agree as you do that ATP as does any flight school has it's positives and negatives. The FBO I went to was ok, except it just didn't seem like the instructor and I connected. I couldn't fly that much because I had a full time job which assigned me mandatory overtime a lot. I went to school part-time taking online classes and finally got my A.A. a few months ago. It just came to a point where I said to myself, "Just Do It", and signed up for ATP. I like the concept where you train about every day, full immersion. Same with me, at the FBO. It was train for like 2 hrs, not get a real thourough debriefing and then go home and practice on flight simulator. It all depends on what is right for you. In my case, a specialized aviation school such as ATP I believe is right for me. How is it at DAB?

Haha ya I forgot to add that it was Check, Cash, or Visa to pay for this then we did a debrief.

DAB seems to be a great location so far. I dont have any other locations to compare to though. I will admit the scheduling system that they do seems a bit unorganized well not unorganized but its only like 2 days in advice where as my old FBO school was like 2-3 weeks in advance. Now once I get it in my head ATP fast track is 7 days a week an advance schedule isnt really needed since you know you will be doing something at ATP every day. The jump from Class E airport to Class C is big but its great to fine tune my radio abilities.

Another thing I really enjoy about ATP compared to my old FBO is that they train you things in how it relates to future careers. We go through checklists and maneuvers and my instructor explains how things will work with an airline and why whatever we are doing is important. It may just be my instructors that make ATP a good school which could be said for any school.


Im really excited to know once my PPL is done its all seminole for the rest of my training except a little 172 for commercial/CFI school I believe not sure.

I definetly had the "Just do it" attitude when I signed up for ATP. My wife and I just want to move on and get me into a career. If I was to do it over again I might train somewhere else for less $ but more 172 time :( as it is right now I am happy with ATP.
 
I went through ATP's PPL program in ATL. The biggest thing that I can tell you is study your butt off. If you study most of the time and chair fly when you are not flying you should do great on your check-ride. Don't expect ATP to go much past 20hrs to solo you. If you don't solo by about 30hrs they will seriously start looking at whether you should stay. This didn't happen to me but it did happen to a guy that was in my class. The biggest thing to look forward to is the 30hrs or so of time building that you get in the 172 and then on to the good ole PA44 seminole. That plane is a blast to fly, I wish the school I work at had one. Terrynabet your going to JAX so you get to fly the DA40s with the G1000. It's a great airplane, I dont know what they don't have them IFR certified. The best advice I can give you is study hard, don't stress out over check-rides and have fun. In 6 months you get to be one of us 250hr wonders everyone in the 121 world hate!!:)
 
I went through ATP's PPL program in ATL. The biggest thing that I can tell you is study your butt off. If you study most of the time and chair fly when you are not flying you should do great on your check-ride. Don't expect ATP to go much past 20hrs to solo you. If you don't solo by about 30hrs they will seriously start looking at whether you should stay. This didn't happen to me but it did happen to a guy that was in my class. The biggest thing to look forward to is the 30hrs or so of time building that you get in the 172 and then on to the good ole PA44 seminole. That plane is a blast to fly, I wish the school I work at had one. Terrynabet your going to JAX so you get to fly the DA40s with the G1000. It's a great airplane, I dont know what they don't have them IFR certified. The best advice I can give you is study hard, don't stress out over check-rides and have fun. In 6 months you get to be one of us 250hr wonders everyone in the 121 world hate!!:)
Too bad they are not IFR certified, the G1000 is a blast to take into actual...
 
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