New ATP Student KRIC/Running Experience...
- Thread starter Future Cpt Kirk
- Start date
Sled14
Well-Known Member
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Whats up Guys?
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Things have been pretty crazy and really didn't have time to get on here. A lot has happened since early August. First, I'll start off with the Commercial Single Engine Add-On:
I began training for my Comm Single on 8/2/2013. After only 3 flights practicing commercial maneuvers, I was signed off and ready to go. I took the checkride on 8/10/2013. It was pretty easy. Nothing more than systems of the C-172 as all the in depth information was covered by the examiner in the Initial Comm Multi oral exam. Checkride went without a problem and I secured my ticket! This is one of the few easier parts of the program... Almost as if it was a much needed break after Instrument, x/c's, and initial commercial. The commercial single maneuvers (chandelles, eights-on-pylons, and lazy eights are fun new maneuvers..... Especially lazy eights. If anyone thinking about coming to ATP or already in ATP is still reading this thread...don't worry about this portion of the program... Easy stuff. Next Post... CFI School.....
Ps... Anyone still reading this?
Mike
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Things have been pretty crazy and really didn't have time to get on here. A lot has happened since early August. First, I'll start off with the Commercial Single Engine Add-On:
I began training for my Comm Single on 8/2/2013. After only 3 flights practicing commercial maneuvers, I was signed off and ready to go. I took the checkride on 8/10/2013. It was pretty easy. Nothing more than systems of the C-172 as all the in depth information was covered by the examiner in the Initial Comm Multi oral exam. Checkride went without a problem and I secured my ticket! This is one of the few easier parts of the program... Almost as if it was a much needed break after Instrument, x/c's, and initial commercial. The commercial single maneuvers (chandelles, eights-on-pylons, and lazy eights are fun new maneuvers..... Especially lazy eights. If anyone thinking about coming to ATP or already in ATP is still reading this thread...don't worry about this portion of the program... Easy stuff. Next Post... CFI School.....
Ps... Anyone still reading this?
Mike
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Ok.... Now lets talk about CFI school. After my Commercial Single, I took the last written exam... Flight Instructor Airplane (I took the Flight Instructor Instrument and Fundamentals of Instruction writtens ealier). This was a great feeling... no more writtens!
I was originally scheduled for CFI school to begin on Monday, 8/19/2013, at FXE (Ft. Lauderdale). However, two days before leaving, I was told I was going to CRG (Jacksonville, Craig Airport). I assumed this was due to back-ups with scheduling in Lauderdale, as I had heard they were having some issues getting people scheduled for checkrides in a timely manner (remember... for the CFI initial, you are at the mercy of the FAA). In reality, it was because my application had already been input with the FSDO in Ft. Lauderdale and I was assigned an examiner who supposedly has a 100% first time fail rate and is unfair to students. Once you are assigned an examiner, you must go with them unless you apply to a different FSDO (which is why I was then sent to CRG).
I flew down to JAX on 8/18/2013 and met up with the two other guys I shared the rental car with. ATP does provide a rental car for you, however it is shared between 3-5 people. Make sure you get all your names put on it when you pick it up, so that you all can legally drive it.... And drive safe! ATP is too cheap to cover the insurance... And it cost's a minimum of 25.00 per day (Enterprise)... So we drove for three weeks with no insurance!
Luckily, we got to stay in an extended stay hotel for the duration of CFI school. That is not common, as most classes end up in student housing either from the get-go, or they are moved from the hotel to student housing after about a week. The hotel they use in Jax is about 15 minutes from the airport...Not bad at all. It is also close to restaurants, shopping, and the beach... Though we didn't get any free time to go to the beach at all.
Our CFI instructor, Ricardo, was great. Funny guy and knows what he is talking about. Cares about your success and makes himself available to you pretty much all the time. That being said, he does have to follow company procedure. And company procedure for CFI ground instruction is the instructor reading line-by-line off of power point slides for 8-10 hours a day, for the first 4-5 days. It is esentially worthless. Some people can learn like that, but I haven't met many. The slides are copyied and pasted from the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK), Aviation Instructors Handbook (AIH), and Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH). Do yourself a favor in CFI school...read the books (especially the AIH) and take notes from the books while they are doing their power points. It is a complete waste of time to sit there and listen to them read slides for hours on end. That being said, when the instructor did ghet off the slides and actually discuss topics with us, it was good information. Other than that though, I have to say that ATP's "CFI School" is really just a formality so that they can say they provided the required instruction necessary for the student to be eligable to take the exam.
I suggest finding those in you class willing to work late hours and willing to work together and team up. You simply cannot cover all the material on your own. You will be given until Friday of the first week to complete your lesson plans.... We came up with a format we were all happy with, and divided up the sections in the CFI PTS. It took forever... our lesson plans, with notes, are about 400-500 pages long. You can't do it on your own and they are required. Some examiners are big on them while others aren't. But you never know. A lot of people use lesson plans they were given from previous students or their instructors etc... This is fine and a huge help, so long as the lesson plans are OK. A lot of the lesson plans are simply the PTS tasks copied and pasted into lesson plan format (aka backseatpilot.com). That is not a lesson plan.... A lesson plan is simply an outline of what information is going to be covered (without notes included on it). So its more than just a list of PTS tasks (because most tasks willhave multiple talking points), but less than notes. We made our own lesson plans and everyone has had success with them... We did use some notes from backseatpilot.com which I found to be pretty good for the most part, though a bit in depth/long.
After the first week, you are cut loose from formal instruction and are responsibe for studying/teaching on your own and with other students. Stick with the guys willing to work hard and put in late hours. 8am-5pm won't cut it.... Trust me. There is way too much information to be covered. It is extremely daunting. We were typically there from 8 or 9am until sometime between 9pm and 11pm. It sounds •.... and It is. But there's no other way. You have to suck it up and work hard for a couple of weeks to be successful. The guys in our class who would not work with us, and who didn't show up at the school after we were cut loose failed their initials. I am not familiar with how it works at other CFI school locations, but I know at CRG its intense. You will not succeed if you don't work, teach and study like hell. Earnie Strange (DPE) will have a field day with you if you go in for a checkride and aren't prepared.... You will hear a lot of stories about this guy throughout ATP. Many are true.... We saw some checkrides take as long as 7-9 hours.... One took 12.5 hours. These were the guys who were not well prepared, but were somehow able to stumble through it and pass. The guys who were well prepared were all finishing within the 4-6 hour marks. This will be the most intense studying and prep work you ever do. Not trying to scare anyone, just trying to make you aware.
You will start flying during the second week. Two routine seminole flights (from the right seat) and your spin training flight in the C-172. Spins are AWESOME! Most fun I've ever had in an airplane by far! Went up with Tony from flight ops (for any of you familiar with him). He was great...really good pilot and a nice guy....He landed without touching the yoke once. Just trimmed it onto the ground. Again... Spins are amazing. It was a great break from all the studying.
Once you complete all you flights, you will get signed off by the instructors if they believe you are ready (we had three different instructors between ground, spins, and seminole flights). We did have a couple of guys have to buy extra time in the Seminole before they got signed off.... So make sure you spend as much time in the Sim (right seat) as you can practicing.
Advice to make CFI school easier:
1: If you have time before CFI school, READ THE AIH and study FOI's!!! We were so far behind because we had never looked at any of this material... and there is A LOT! If you can start early, you will be way ahead of the game.
2: Start teaching the material/PTS to the other students ASAP. Don't wait until you "know the info" before you start teaching. The best way to learn is to teach. And if you waste too much time reading and taking notes, you will miss out on practicing teaching, which is critical for this checkride.
I ended up having to fly home after three weeks as I had to be back to work by the 9th of Sept and still hadn't been scheduled for a checkride by the 7th (they are very backed up in Florida right now, especially CRG; There are still guys from my class down there...going on their 5th week now). I was fortunate enough that ATP let me take my checkride with the Richmond FSDO and I didn't have to fly back down to Florida on a weekend. I took the ride with an FAA Instector in Richmond on 9/13/2013 (Friday the 13th) and passed the first time through! It was very hard, but I was well prepared. The oral took about 3.5 hours and the flight was just under 2 hours. I am now a CFI-MEL! About a month left and I will finish the program. Can't wait.
Hope this sheds some light on what CFI school is like. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Take it easy guys!
Mike
I was originally scheduled for CFI school to begin on Monday, 8/19/2013, at FXE (Ft. Lauderdale). However, two days before leaving, I was told I was going to CRG (Jacksonville, Craig Airport). I assumed this was due to back-ups with scheduling in Lauderdale, as I had heard they were having some issues getting people scheduled for checkrides in a timely manner (remember... for the CFI initial, you are at the mercy of the FAA). In reality, it was because my application had already been input with the FSDO in Ft. Lauderdale and I was assigned an examiner who supposedly has a 100% first time fail rate and is unfair to students. Once you are assigned an examiner, you must go with them unless you apply to a different FSDO (which is why I was then sent to CRG).
I flew down to JAX on 8/18/2013 and met up with the two other guys I shared the rental car with. ATP does provide a rental car for you, however it is shared between 3-5 people. Make sure you get all your names put on it when you pick it up, so that you all can legally drive it.... And drive safe! ATP is too cheap to cover the insurance... And it cost's a minimum of 25.00 per day (Enterprise)... So we drove for three weeks with no insurance!
Luckily, we got to stay in an extended stay hotel for the duration of CFI school. That is not common, as most classes end up in student housing either from the get-go, or they are moved from the hotel to student housing after about a week. The hotel they use in Jax is about 15 minutes from the airport...Not bad at all. It is also close to restaurants, shopping, and the beach... Though we didn't get any free time to go to the beach at all.
Our CFI instructor, Ricardo, was great. Funny guy and knows what he is talking about. Cares about your success and makes himself available to you pretty much all the time. That being said, he does have to follow company procedure. And company procedure for CFI ground instruction is the instructor reading line-by-line off of power point slides for 8-10 hours a day, for the first 4-5 days. It is esentially worthless. Some people can learn like that, but I haven't met many. The slides are copyied and pasted from the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK), Aviation Instructors Handbook (AIH), and Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH). Do yourself a favor in CFI school...read the books (especially the AIH) and take notes from the books while they are doing their power points. It is a complete waste of time to sit there and listen to them read slides for hours on end. That being said, when the instructor did ghet off the slides and actually discuss topics with us, it was good information. Other than that though, I have to say that ATP's "CFI School" is really just a formality so that they can say they provided the required instruction necessary for the student to be eligable to take the exam.
I suggest finding those in you class willing to work late hours and willing to work together and team up. You simply cannot cover all the material on your own. You will be given until Friday of the first week to complete your lesson plans.... We came up with a format we were all happy with, and divided up the sections in the CFI PTS. It took forever... our lesson plans, with notes, are about 400-500 pages long. You can't do it on your own and they are required. Some examiners are big on them while others aren't. But you never know. A lot of people use lesson plans they were given from previous students or their instructors etc... This is fine and a huge help, so long as the lesson plans are OK. A lot of the lesson plans are simply the PTS tasks copied and pasted into lesson plan format (aka backseatpilot.com). That is not a lesson plan.... A lesson plan is simply an outline of what information is going to be covered (without notes included on it). So its more than just a list of PTS tasks (because most tasks willhave multiple talking points), but less than notes. We made our own lesson plans and everyone has had success with them... We did use some notes from backseatpilot.com which I found to be pretty good for the most part, though a bit in depth/long.
After the first week, you are cut loose from formal instruction and are responsibe for studying/teaching on your own and with other students. Stick with the guys willing to work hard and put in late hours. 8am-5pm won't cut it.... Trust me. There is way too much information to be covered. It is extremely daunting. We were typically there from 8 or 9am until sometime between 9pm and 11pm. It sounds •.... and It is. But there's no other way. You have to suck it up and work hard for a couple of weeks to be successful. The guys in our class who would not work with us, and who didn't show up at the school after we were cut loose failed their initials. I am not familiar with how it works at other CFI school locations, but I know at CRG its intense. You will not succeed if you don't work, teach and study like hell. Earnie Strange (DPE) will have a field day with you if you go in for a checkride and aren't prepared.... You will hear a lot of stories about this guy throughout ATP. Many are true.... We saw some checkrides take as long as 7-9 hours.... One took 12.5 hours. These were the guys who were not well prepared, but were somehow able to stumble through it and pass. The guys who were well prepared were all finishing within the 4-6 hour marks. This will be the most intense studying and prep work you ever do. Not trying to scare anyone, just trying to make you aware.
You will start flying during the second week. Two routine seminole flights (from the right seat) and your spin training flight in the C-172. Spins are AWESOME! Most fun I've ever had in an airplane by far! Went up with Tony from flight ops (for any of you familiar with him). He was great...really good pilot and a nice guy....He landed without touching the yoke once. Just trimmed it onto the ground. Again... Spins are amazing. It was a great break from all the studying.
Once you complete all you flights, you will get signed off by the instructors if they believe you are ready (we had three different instructors between ground, spins, and seminole flights). We did have a couple of guys have to buy extra time in the Seminole before they got signed off.... So make sure you spend as much time in the Sim (right seat) as you can practicing.
Advice to make CFI school easier:
1: If you have time before CFI school, READ THE AIH and study FOI's!!! We were so far behind because we had never looked at any of this material... and there is A LOT! If you can start early, you will be way ahead of the game.
2: Start teaching the material/PTS to the other students ASAP. Don't wait until you "know the info" before you start teaching. The best way to learn is to teach. And if you waste too much time reading and taking notes, you will miss out on practicing teaching, which is critical for this checkride.
I ended up having to fly home after three weeks as I had to be back to work by the 9th of Sept and still hadn't been scheduled for a checkride by the 7th (they are very backed up in Florida right now, especially CRG; There are still guys from my class down there...going on their 5th week now). I was fortunate enough that ATP let me take my checkride with the Richmond FSDO and I didn't have to fly back down to Florida on a weekend. I took the ride with an FAA Instector in Richmond on 9/13/2013 (Friday the 13th) and passed the first time through! It was very hard, but I was well prepared. The oral took about 3.5 hours and the flight was just under 2 hours. I am now a CFI-MEL! About a month left and I will finish the program. Can't wait.
Hope this sheds some light on what CFI school is like. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Take it easy guys!
Mike
69_Bug_Dude
The Undertaker
Sounds like my life prior to my board exams! I woke up at 6 am and studied til 2am everyday for a month and a half straight! Congrats on getting your CFI MEL, I bet you were really stoked after all of that! What will you be doing the last month?
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
@ 69 Bug Dude: Thanks! It was a great feeling (still is)! The month of hell was well worth it.... made some good friends along the way too. I have my single-engine CFI add-on and FII (Flight Instructor Instrument) add-on left to get out of the way, then I'm finished. Should take me about a month doing it part time... I have about 14 hours of 172 time left in the bank since I hardly used any for the single-commercial. So I have a good amount of flying to use up. Keep us posted on your progress. Good luck! What location are you attending?
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Here is a screen shot from the video I took while doing spins over the beach in the C-172 during CFI training. Thought it was a pretty cool picture. Spins were awesome! Definitely see aerobatic flight training in my future once I can save up some money and have some extra time!
69_Bug_Dude
The Undertaker
I am looking to be at PIE starting in November hopefully. I could start in October but the wife is hoping to add another month of income to the stack before I leave. I will definitely keep y'all up to date. I would love to see the video of your spin training if ya got that available anywhere. Looks like fun!
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
I flew to PIE on x/c's several times. Nice airport and a great FBO... The ATP location is a tiny tiny little office (nothing wrong with that, RIC is small as well). Didn't meet any of the instructors down there, but heard poor things in CFI school from the CFI instructor. Have you taken a tour and met the instructors? Could just be hear-say...never met the guys so they could be great, but make sure you meet the instructors and feel comfortable with them before you comit..... Also, make sure they are on their game with your logbooks! We had three guys from PIE in our CFI class. Their logbooks were screwed up pretty bad.... CFI instructor had to sit with each of them and fix the books before they could take their checkrides.
69_Bug_Dude
The Undertaker
I did take a tour and yes it is very small. All the guys there seemed really nice and competent. In fact the one instructor that I did my intro flight with, Ryan, was from my neck of the woods in WI where I grew up. I will keep an eagle eye on things as I am going along, that's for sure! Thanks for the heads up!
5hrsit
Well-Known Member
Ahh Pink slip pinkston hahaaaa ..Oh and Ernest Jackson Strange Jr.....
Last edited:
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Ruben,
I was reading through the thread and came across this post from you. Sorry I never responded to you...
I currently work for the government...although we were furloughed today due to the gov't shutdown! Getting pretty tired of the gov't furloughs and pay cuts.... Not what it used to be. Looking forward to getting out of here when I can.
I will not be offered the Republic interview as I am a part-time student at ATP and will not be instructing for them when I finish. I have a instructing job lined up at my local FBO (where I earned my PPL in 2010). But I am confident that when I have the 1500 hrs there will be plently of companies hiring... I hope.
Again, sorry for the delayed response to your questions!
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Whats up guys. Hope all is well.
So..... I finished! I have completed the Airline Career Pilot Program, self-paced, with ATP at the RIC location! It was a tough 8 months, but well worth it.
On September 29th 2013, I took and passed the CFI Single-Engine add-on checkride. This was one of the easier checkrides that I have taken. Same maneuvers as the Commercial Single checkride, but you must "instruct" them. Essentially, you are constantly talking about what you are doing and why you are doing it. The oral portion of this checkride was also easy. Systems, emergency procedures, and I taught ground lessons on steep turns and turns around a point. Once you get passed the CFI initial, things seem to become quite a bit easier (not necessarily that they are actually easier, but that studying for and taking the CFI initial was so damn hard).
On October 4th, 2013, I took and passed the CFII (Flight Instructor Instrument) checkride and I was finished! Again, this was an easy checkride. During the oral I discussed the magnetic compass errors in detail (I constructed a crude mag compass from the bottom of a styrophome cup to use as a visual aid). I taught a ground lesson on VOR's and the ILS approach and system. I discussed low en-route charts and approach plates and finally I gave a ground lesson on the "control & performance method of instrument flying: vs. the "primary & supporting method of instrument flying." That was essentially the extent of the oral. I think the trickiest part was being able to grasp Mag Dip well enough to be able to expain it in laymens terms. Remember... the magnet inside is always trying to follow a line of flux to the mag north pole, so when you turn the airplane, and thus the magnet, the magnet will move (turn) to stay aligned with that line of flux. This will give you your turning error. Anyways.... I digress. The flight was straight forward. We took off from RIC and headed towards PTB. On the way the examiner had me explaine and demonstrate how to do constant speed and constant rate climbs & descents while under the hood. We did timed turns and I shot the RNAV 5 into PTB to the missed while explaining what was going on. I even failed my own attitude indicator (unnecessary pain I know...but its no big deal at this point in the game). After flying the published missed, the examiner took controls and pretended to be the student. He had me talk him through unusual attitude recoveries and we did two of them. The he had me instruct him through the ILS 33 at FCI. We landed and the checkride was over. I requested a visual flight, approach, and landing back into RIC as it may be some time before I fly a Seminole, or any twin for that matter, again. I wanted to soak it in one more time. I will miss that plane!
Since I finished I have been hired by my local FBO (where I earned my Private Certificate in 2010). My first student starts on Saturday! Kind of nervous. I am currently exploring other options as the school that hired me is currently not very busy. Not at all in fact. I only have one student assigned and he's solely a weekend guy. I'm available 7 days a week, 4 of them full time. If anyone knows of any opportunities in Virginia, let me know! I will be looking into ATP IF they would consider letting me instruct for them 5 days a week so that I may keep my government job part time. I can't afford to quit right now....especially with ATP's pay rates. I am also looking a large/busy school in northern Virginia. Hopefully something pans out soon.
To anyone who has kept up with my thread over the past eight months and/or offered words of advice and confidence, thank you! I appreciate it all. It was hard, but well worth it. And to anyone considering the ATP Airline Career Pilot Program, I highly recommend it IF you go to the RIC location. I cannot speak for other locations. But I can tell you that the level of professionalism and quality of instruction that are attributed to the instructors in RIC (Jake, Diego, and Derek) are second to none. I truely believe I couldn't have had a better instructor than Jake. All the horror stories you read about ATP on these blogs simply were as far from truth as could be at RIC. I received more ground training than I could handle at times, both in group classroom settings and individually. All the instructors always made themselves available to help and would always stick around after their flights to assist students and give ground training. Their flying was excellent and Jake pushed me to achieve much greater precision than the minimums prescribed in the PTS. As a result of the excellent flight and ground training I received, and a lot of hard work on my part, I passed every checkride, including the CFI initial (with an FAA Inspector, not a DPE) first try with zero retakes. My experience was very good overall.
Good luck to anyone considering the program, or any flight training for that matter. Feel free to message me or write on this thread. I will continue to check it and reply to any comments. Maybe I'll see some of you out there one day.... who knows, I may end up at ATP RIC or ATP HEF (Manassas, VA, a new location opening soon)! Thanks guys!
Mike Kirkpatrick
CFI, CFII, MEI
So..... I finished! I have completed the Airline Career Pilot Program, self-paced, with ATP at the RIC location! It was a tough 8 months, but well worth it.
On September 29th 2013, I took and passed the CFI Single-Engine add-on checkride. This was one of the easier checkrides that I have taken. Same maneuvers as the Commercial Single checkride, but you must "instruct" them. Essentially, you are constantly talking about what you are doing and why you are doing it. The oral portion of this checkride was also easy. Systems, emergency procedures, and I taught ground lessons on steep turns and turns around a point. Once you get passed the CFI initial, things seem to become quite a bit easier (not necessarily that they are actually easier, but that studying for and taking the CFI initial was so damn hard).
On October 4th, 2013, I took and passed the CFII (Flight Instructor Instrument) checkride and I was finished! Again, this was an easy checkride. During the oral I discussed the magnetic compass errors in detail (I constructed a crude mag compass from the bottom of a styrophome cup to use as a visual aid). I taught a ground lesson on VOR's and the ILS approach and system. I discussed low en-route charts and approach plates and finally I gave a ground lesson on the "control & performance method of instrument flying: vs. the "primary & supporting method of instrument flying." That was essentially the extent of the oral. I think the trickiest part was being able to grasp Mag Dip well enough to be able to expain it in laymens terms. Remember... the magnet inside is always trying to follow a line of flux to the mag north pole, so when you turn the airplane, and thus the magnet, the magnet will move (turn) to stay aligned with that line of flux. This will give you your turning error. Anyways.... I digress. The flight was straight forward. We took off from RIC and headed towards PTB. On the way the examiner had me explaine and demonstrate how to do constant speed and constant rate climbs & descents while under the hood. We did timed turns and I shot the RNAV 5 into PTB to the missed while explaining what was going on. I even failed my own attitude indicator (unnecessary pain I know...but its no big deal at this point in the game). After flying the published missed, the examiner took controls and pretended to be the student. He had me talk him through unusual attitude recoveries and we did two of them. The he had me instruct him through the ILS 33 at FCI. We landed and the checkride was over. I requested a visual flight, approach, and landing back into RIC as it may be some time before I fly a Seminole, or any twin for that matter, again. I wanted to soak it in one more time. I will miss that plane!
Since I finished I have been hired by my local FBO (where I earned my Private Certificate in 2010). My first student starts on Saturday! Kind of nervous. I am currently exploring other options as the school that hired me is currently not very busy. Not at all in fact. I only have one student assigned and he's solely a weekend guy. I'm available 7 days a week, 4 of them full time. If anyone knows of any opportunities in Virginia, let me know! I will be looking into ATP IF they would consider letting me instruct for them 5 days a week so that I may keep my government job part time. I can't afford to quit right now....especially with ATP's pay rates. I am also looking a large/busy school in northern Virginia. Hopefully something pans out soon.
To anyone who has kept up with my thread over the past eight months and/or offered words of advice and confidence, thank you! I appreciate it all. It was hard, but well worth it. And to anyone considering the ATP Airline Career Pilot Program, I highly recommend it IF you go to the RIC location. I cannot speak for other locations. But I can tell you that the level of professionalism and quality of instruction that are attributed to the instructors in RIC (Jake, Diego, and Derek) are second to none. I truely believe I couldn't have had a better instructor than Jake. All the horror stories you read about ATP on these blogs simply were as far from truth as could be at RIC. I received more ground training than I could handle at times, both in group classroom settings and individually. All the instructors always made themselves available to help and would always stick around after their flights to assist students and give ground training. Their flying was excellent and Jake pushed me to achieve much greater precision than the minimums prescribed in the PTS. As a result of the excellent flight and ground training I received, and a lot of hard work on my part, I passed every checkride, including the CFI initial (with an FAA Inspector, not a DPE) first try with zero retakes. My experience was very good overall.
Good luck to anyone considering the program, or any flight training for that matter. Feel free to message me or write on this thread. I will continue to check it and reply to any comments. Maybe I'll see some of you out there one day.... who knows, I may end up at ATP RIC or ATP HEF (Manassas, VA, a new location opening soon)! Thanks guys!
Mike Kirkpatrick
CFI, CFII, MEI
Last edited:
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
CFI Single-add on.
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
CFII
69_Bug_Dude
The Undertaker
Mike, congrats on your success and much luck into the future!!! I start in T-minus 12 days, but I'll be heading to PIE a couple days earlier to get settled. I am hoping to put together some type of blog as I go along just as you did. Take care!
Guidetothesky
Well-Known Member
Congratulations!
Future Cpt Kirk
Well-Known Member
Thanks Clocks. I appreciate it!
turnnburn7
New Member
Hey I have a question for you. I am currently a student pilot and only have a few flight hours. I am at Liberty University school of Aeronautics but looking to transfer to ATP in Charlotte. I have called several times but no one is calling me back. I have questions about the time they allow you to pay back the loans. I was wondering if you have any insight on the answer to that?
Similar threads
