So I've looked through the forums for hours now and can't seem to find an answer to this question: does anyone ever get their ATP without instructing?
I realize that instructing is the best way to gain those hours and that it opens up a lot more doors as far as options are concerned, but I really want to hear from someone who DIDN'T do it that way. There has to be some of you out there...
I've got ATP mins (don't have the ticket yet) and then some, and I never instructed a day in my life.
Flight instructing, in reality, is probably your simplest option, but that's entirely your call. Do what works for you.
I'm like Firebird2XC then, in that I also don't have a CFI cert. To be honest, I never had any aspirations of becoming an airline pilot. It was a hobby and I had a job that allowed me to put away money into "the having fun" account - most of which went into flying.
When I started this "hobby," in addition to not having any aspirations to be an airline pilot, I didn't want to fly anything with an engine either. I soared for four years, then somehow I found an engine attached to the glider, and it became a 172/172RG/182. Hey - not any less fun than soaring, just different kind of challenges and thought processes required.
Now I didn't have any interest in flying anything with more than one engine, but after my wife (who didn't like flying in a GA airplane) discovered that GA flying allowed us to get to weekend destinations faster, she became a avid supporter, and she practically demanded that I get the second engine added (she thought we'd be safer or that we'd get there faster - not really I tried to explain - I didn't think the benefits gained were worth the extra cost, but I'm not going to argue with the wife about adding on an engine.)
When the 121 regional hiring spree came around, I found myself having acquired all the required certificates for a 121 First Officer position over 10 years, no flight training debt and almost half the hours needed towards an ATP certificate playing real world Microsoft FlightSim everywhere my previous career took me, the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf Coast, Southern California, New England, Hawaii, and Japan, - so lots of VFR flying in different areas of the US and Japan, but not a lot of IMC, and no one had tried to kill me yet other than another non-certificated pilot friend who had buttloads of rotary wing hours, but practically zero time in a fixed wing - he tried to land the 172 at helicopter speeds.
The flying "hobby" was like owning a sailboat, a big black hole where you dumped your money. Eventually I want to get out of bus driving and into flight instructing, so that's my long term goal. - That's my minority position of how one can get to ATP mins with out a CFI - you devote time and money towards it - you need lots of money and you can probably do it faster than I did - the limiting factor will be money. I don't think I'd change the path I took, other than I wouldn't have paid the money to go to MAPD.
