Joining ATP

A

Aaronvandagriff

New Member
Hey guys. I have been looking around for some flight schools and found 2 that really stood out MTSU and ATP. I'm leaning more towards ATP but one question I have is the schooling more money focused ( take your money and push you out) or more student focused (more available one on one time for questions). I have a real big trust issue with fast paced schools. Reason being is I went to spartan college to get my AMT certs and got discouraged halfway through due to the fact the was no educational help other than class mates. I still finished the course but didnt go for my certs. Can anyone tell me how well ATP works with students? Considering going for a tour of smyrna facility.
 
Aaronvandagriff said:
Hey guys. I have been looking around for some flight schools and found 2 that really stood out MTSU and ATP. I'm leaning more towards ATP but one question I have is the schooling more money focused ( take your money and push you out) or more student focused (more available one on one time for questions). I have a real big trust issue with fast paced schools. Reason being is I went to spartan college to get my AMT certs and got discouraged halfway through due to the fact the was no educational help other than class mates. I still finished the course but didnt go for my certs. Can anyone tell me how well ATP works with students? Considering going for a tour of smyrna facility.
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It doesn't sound like ATP is a good choice for you. I would check out smaller schools and talk to students and instructors there to get a feel for the program. ATP is more of a mill then a school.
 
I can tell you that 10-12 years ago the people at ATP were great sales people and then as soon as they got your money they didn't give a crap about you. It was great in way because it prepped me for the pace of 121 training. But for the guys that were a little slow/behind, they were shown the door fairly quickly. They make you sign a contract on day one. I know a guy that only flew 20 hours in a Cessna with an instructor and then they let him go. It costs him about $5000 for those 20 hours. So if you decide to go there, make sure you can handle a very fast paced training environment and that you can self study and learn the material. Good luck!
 
You can get your ratings for a lot cheaper and more quality instruction than ATP. If money isn’t an issue and you just want to bang out ratings then maybe ATP is the place for you.
 
Jordan93 said:
You can get your ratings for a lot cheaper and more quality instruction than ATP. If money isn’t an issue and you just want to bang out ratings then maybe ATP is the place for you.
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The multi-time building is the main part of their value proposition. The people I know who successfully did their programs, to a man, said that there was no spoon-feeding of the material - you had to be disciplined about your study and seek the (unlimited at the time) ground training to help shore up your weak points. What ATP provides is a lot of multi-time on a challenging, but do-able schedule. On time and on budget.

EDIT: disclaimer: I have not trained there - chose not to some years ago. Knowing what I know now, I might have done things a little differently.
 
killbilly said:
The multi-time building is the main part of their value proposition. The people I know who successfully did their programs, to a man, said that there was no spoon-feeding of the material - you had to be disciplined about your study and seek the (unlimited at the time) ground training to help shore up your weak points. What ATP provides is a lot of multi-time on a challenging, but do-able schedule. On time and on budget.

EDIT: disclaimer: I have not trained there - chose not to some years ago. Knowing what I know now, I might have done things a little differently.
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ATP definitely works for some people. Others not so much. When I started flight training, I knew I wanted to go the airline route and I didn’t need like 100 hours of MEL time so it would be a waste of money for me to enroll in ATP.
 
I haven't heard great stuff about the quality of ATP's instruction of late.

Granted, I'm quite removed from the primary flight training sphere now, but I would recommend getting your private on your own before signing on the dotted.

Also, the earlier you learn to work with your fellow pilots to get through training, the better.
 
I attended a long time ago, but yeah, they are definitely more of the great salespeople and then the rest is pretty much up to you to make happen. Worked for me and plenty of others, but struggling people or those that needed help got left behind pretty quick.
 
Thanks for the responses! It's not that I cant handle the fast paced, its more that if I have a question outside of school would i be able to get help with my study. I'm not asking to be spoon fed. I just want the security of knowing that if I have questions I can get answers. I could have succeeded in spartan but I lost enthusiasm half way through and didnt care. I was 700 miles from home and only 17 years old so my focus was more on getting home than my school work. Where as of now I'm going to be home and going to school this will not be an issue. I am also looking for long term such as, job placement after 9 the months, the clarity of getting hired on with the industry, starting out with my new job. These are just some of the things I'm looking at. I have a small family wife and kids. I am currently making 65k a year trying to improve my career. I have always had a passion with flying. Going to all the air shows and actually working in one. I want to get in this industry so badly I can hardly keep myself from just jumping into it. But as a 23 year old I'm trying to make the smartest decisions as possible for me and my family.
 
Aaronvandagriff said:
Thanks for the responses! It's not that I cant handle the fast paced, its more that if I have a question outside of school would i be able to get help with my study. I'm not asking to be spoon fed. I just want the security of knowing that if I have questions I can get answers. I could have succeeded in spartan but I lost enthusiasm half way through and didnt care. I was 700 miles from home and only 17 years old so my focus was more on getting home than my school work. Where as of now I'm going to be home and going to school this will not be an issue. I am also looking for long term such as, job placement after 9 the months, the clarity of getting hired on with the industry, starting out with my new job. These are just some of the things I'm looking at. I have a small family wife and kids. I am currently making 65k a year trying to improve my career. I have always had a passion with flying. Going to all the air shows and actually working in one. I want to get in this industry so badly I can hardly keep myself from just jumping into it. But as a 23 year old I'm trying to make the smartest decisions as possible for me and my family.
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Purely out of curiosity - are you eligible to get your A&P certs? I'd lock that in if you can/got really close.
 
Aaronvandagriff said:
It's not that I cant handle the fast paced, its more that if I have a question outside of school would i be able to get help with my study. I'm not asking to be spoon fed. I just want the security of knowing that if I have questions I can get answers.
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From personal experience at ATP, it depends more on your instructor than the school. I had instructors who were willing to do ground lessons and give more in depth and personalized knowledge instruction. Other guys at the same location when I was there were basically left to fend entirely for themselves and barely saw their instructors outside of flight/sim lessons except for the minimum required hours of ground instruction (most of which was done in classroom setting). Generally the instructors will be there to fill in gaps and clarify things, but ATP expects the vast majority of your learning to come from self study and any group study you may do with fellow students. Remember that most of the instructors there are in it to get their hours and leave and aren't necessarily focused on student success.
 
n156499000 said:
From personal experience at ATP, it depends more on your instructor than the school. I had instructors who were willing to do ground lessons and give more in depth and personalized knowledge instruction. Other guys at the same location when I was there were basically left to fend entirely for themselves and barely saw their instructors outside of flight/sim lessons except for the minimum required hours of ground instruction (most of which was done in classroom setting). Generally the instructors will be there to fill in gaps and clarify things, but ATP expects the vast majority of your learning to come from self study and any group study you may do with fellow students. Remember that most of the instructors there are in it to get their hours and leave and aren't necessarily focused on student success.
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Bingo. And I think the same is true anywhere. You may have a great instructor at a mom and pop flight school that devotes a ton of time to ground instruction or you may have the guy that's just interested in building time to get to the airlines and ground instruction doesn't achieve that goal. I went the ATP route and was able to overcome being told by my private multi/instrument instructor to "read the book" anytime I had a question. I would say a major difference between ATP and a smaller operation is you may be able to choose your instructor at a smaller company but ATP would basically tell people to "suck it up because you don't get to pick your instructor at the airlines" if they complained about their instructor. That pissed a lot of people off, but they couldn't do anything about it because ATP had their money at that point.
 
guywhoflies said:
ATP would basically tell people to "suck it up because you don't get to pick your instructor at the airlines" if they complained about their instructor. That pissed a lot of people off, but they couldn't do anything about it because ATP had their money at that point.
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Interesting. Given how small a world aviation is, you'd think those instructors who didn't care would somehow find a comeuppance when they got to an airline...since they may very well be flying with former students.
 
The draw to ATP was tons of multi time and a fast pace. Now most regionals only require 25 hours of multi. Bang your ratings out in the cheapest aircraft possible. A light twin ain't it.
 
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