Started ATP 2 Days Ago

[future pilot]

First off, thank you for creating this thread. It is very insightful into the program. A question i have for you is, how much studying is needed at home each night? is the program basically just live, eat, and breathe ATP? I understand that studying is a basic part of any flight training program. I am just trying to gain an idea of how rigorous the program is.

 

[Miguel Villazon]

When is your first checkride scheduled?

First checkride should be around the end of April beginning of May

 

[Miguel Villazon]

First off, thank you for creating this thread. It is very insightful into the program. A question i have for you is, how much studying is needed at home each night? is the program basically just live, eat, and breathe ATP? I understand that studying is a basic part of any flight training program. I am just trying to gain an idea of how rigorous the program is.

I'm glad that the post is helping you out. Any flight school will require studying, the thing with ATP is at speed at which the course moves. You transition very quickly into many different aspects of flight. The instructor expects you to have at least a rough idea of what you should be doing and come to the flight prepared, they are not there to walk you step by step through everything. With that being said, you get what you put in. If you go in there with the knowledge and the instructor sees that you're putting in a genuine effort to get things and do things right, he will do anything to help you. That depends from instructor to instructor obviously, but the one I have is awesome, and the ones that I have seen at the school are also great with their students.

 

[Sled14]

First off, thank you for creating this thread. It is very insightful into the program. A question i have for you is, how much studying is needed at home each night? is the program basically just live, eat, and breathe ATP? I understand that studying is a basic part of any flight training program. I am just trying to gain an idea of how rigorous the program is.

If you can get a head start before the program and take your writtens and study, it definitely helps. Makes it less stressful and gives you a little more time during the program.

 

[Miguel Villazon]

If you can get a head start before the program and take your writtens and study, it definitely helps. Makes it less stressful and gives you a little more time during the program.

Yup! This is clutch! I wish I would have taken and studied for my written prior. Shaves off a good amount of time for you to focus on other things.

 

[killbilly]

Question, mostly out of curiosity:

We've heard for years that the best way to prepare for ATP is to take all of your writtens and have them knocked out before you get there. However, if you're in the career program with no prior time, how do you get the endorsements to take the written?

Just curious.

 

[jskibo]

Question, mostly out of curiosity:

We've heard for years that the best way to prepare for ATP is to take all of your writtens and have them knocked out before you get there. However, if you're in the career program with no prior time, how do you get the endorsements to take the written?

Just curious.

Some of the test prep courses offer a sign off after you show them three scores above 90%. They send you a sticker for your log with endorsement and signature

 

[drunkenbeagle]

Question, mostly out of curiosity:

We've heard for years that the best way to prepare for ATP is to take all of your writtens and have them knocked out before you get there. However, if you're in the career program with no prior time, how do you get the endorsements to take the written?

Just curious.

If you buy one of the courses, like the King course, they will generally give you the endorsement. Or, if you ask a CFI, we will generally give an endorsement to anyone that asks. (If someone is asking for an endorsement, 99% of the time, they have studied enough to pass the test as well).

EDIT: And you don't need an endorsement for any of the CFI tests. If you passed those, you will almost certainly have the knowledge to pass the others.

 

[Brandon K.]

I just passed my flight physical and I'm currently undergoing the loan process for ATP. I plan on starting August of 2016. I am a father of two and a husband, what things would you recommend me doing ahead of time to make my training more enjoyable and perhaps less stressful? Also, how much of a life can I expect when I get home daily and on the weekends for my family in all reality? Appreciate any honest helpful response.

 

[Flyboy57]

A 121 classmate of mine went through their program, from hour one to all his ratings in six months, then instructed for them for another 1.5 years to get his 121 time. He's now in his second year of 121 flying and doing great. Good luck with your training.

 

[Miguel Villazon]

A 121 classmate of mine went through their program, from hour one to all his ratings in six months, then instructed for them for another 1.5 years to get his 121 time. He's now in his second year of 121 flying and doing great. Good luck with your training.

Awesome man! Thanks for the info!

 

[Miguel Villazon]

I just passed my flight physical and I'm currently undergoing the loan process for ATP. I plan on starting August of 2016. I am a father of two and a husband, what things would you recommend me doing ahead of time to make my training more enjoyable and perhaps less stressful? Also, how much of a life can I expect when I get home daily and on the weekends for my family in all reality? Appreciate any honest helpful response.

Hey Brandon,

That's awesome man, it's a really great program, but it's pretty intense and very very fast paced. You need a lot of personal dedication and time otherwise you'll fall way behind. I personally have zero life, I go fly so some ground with my instructor come back home and literally study all night until the next day, then repeat. I don't think it has to be as extreme as I'm doing it, but since I have nothing else to focus on I'm just going balls to the wall. If you organize yourself, you'll have some time to dedicate to your wife and kids, by ATP will consume a large chunk of your day. If you could do it, I would recommend taking the written tests, at least the PP one so that you could have more time to focus on the oral and everything else. Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help you with any questions you got

 

[Brandon K.]

That helps a lot, if I could see my kids for an hour or two a night that would be fine. I'd probably just hit the books after they were in bed. Only issue I'm having right now is the financing. Had my Gma on board as a co signer until the guy at Sallie Mae scared her out of it. Now I'm left to try and figure something else out...

 

[Troy McClure]

Hello, perfect timing on this thread! Thanks. I m getting ready to start the process as well. A couple of questions for Brandon and Miguel....re the loans
Without divulging too much of your personal finances....did you get the Wells or go with Sallie mae?
Assuming we would be flying full time and not working, how can one qualify for such a large loan without a job? I do not own a home so I have basically no collateral
Im assuming I will need a consigner.
How many days do you expect to reach CFII?

suggestion...post your TT (hours) as you write...That will give us some clue as to the speed and your progress... Thanks again. This the perfect thread. Don't get burned out.

 

[ShyFlyer]

Assuming we would be flying full time and not working, how can one qualify for such a large loan without a job?

I'm thinking that nearly everyone will need a cosigner. As for paying on the loan, payments are deferred until 6 months (I think its 6) after you complete the program.

 

[BCTAv8r]

I got my loan through Sallie Mae. I applied for Wells Fargo, but they wanted a co-signer, and I didn't really have anyone to go to, so I went with Sallie Mae. Probably more expensive, but it was the only way I could do it.

 

[Plata]

For @Brandon K. and all the rest who are contemplating an accelerated program: unless you legitimately fall into the intellectually gifted category, prepare yourself and your family for six months of very high workload and almost zero quality family time. You will need to be out of the house a lot; flying, studying alone or in study groups, doing practice orals and chair flying. Your wife will be a single parent. Get her accustomed to the idea now, or your stress level will be through the roof. [Reality check here - regardless of profession, all couples experience this at times during a person's career, so get her to accept this fact. If she insists that you need to be home every night to spend time with her and the kiddies you need to abandon your aspirations of flying (and most other careers short of being a bag boy at Krogers) for a living].

After you start instructing the intensity changes. You won't be doing quite so much studying, but you will be spending a lot of time outside the house flying or attending to program-related responsibilities. Don't forget, you will need to do plenty of night instruction, so there will be early mornings and late evenings. Mom is going to continue to be frustrated and exasperated, and there will be lots of marital stress and feelings of guilt, but it won't be quite as bad as those first six months.

Make no mistake about it, the accelerated programs are very demanding. Much more than high school and most university programs. If you thought you were going balls out back then, you may feel overwhelmed. Take solace in the fact that many people have been down the same path, and have been successful. Have your wife speak with the spouses of guys who are just about to leave ATP so she can begin preparing herself. Develop contingency plans for dealing with life's problems that crop up when you're three states away doing your time building flights. You can be certain that your wife will get sick, the car will break down, one of the kids will need to go to the hospital, or the bank will bounce a big check while you're gone, so have fallback plans in place.

Do all the advance work and then go have a great time becoming a top notch pilot and instructor. The feeling of accomplishment is fantastic.

 

[killbilly]

For @Brandon K. and all the rest who are contemplating an accelerated program: unless you legitimately fall into the intellectually gifted category, prepare yourself and your family for six months of very high workload and almost zero quality family time. You will need to be out of the house a lot; flying, studying alone or in study groups, doing practice orals and chair flying. Your wife will be a single parent. Get her accustomed to the idea now, or your stress level will be through the roof. [Reality check here - regardless of profession, all couples experience this at times during a person's career, so get her to accept this fact. If she insists that you need to be home every night to spend time with her and the kiddies you need to abandon your aspirations of flying (and most other careers short of being a bag boy at Krogers) for a living].

After you start instructing the intensity changes. You won't be doing quite so much studying, but you will be spending a lot of time outside the house flying or attending to program-related responsibilities. Don't forget, you will need to do plenty of night instruction, so there will be early mornings and late evenings. Mom is going to continue to be frustrated and exasperated, and there will be lots of marital stress and feelings of guilt, but it won't be quite as bad as those first six months.

Make no mistake about it, the accelerated programs are very demanding. Much more than high school and most university programs. If you thought you were going balls out back then, you may feel overwhelmed. Take solace in the fact that many people have been down the same path, and have been successful. Have your wife speak with the spouses of guys who are just about to leave ATP so she can begin preparing herself. Develop contingency plans for dealing with life's problems that crop up when you're three states away doing your time building flights. You can be certain that your wife will get sick, the car will break down, one of the kids will need to go to the hospital, or the bank will bounce a big check while you're gone, so have fallback plans in place.

Do all the advance work and then go have a great time becoming a top notch pilot and instructor. The feeling of accomplishment is fantastic.

This is pretty good advice. Now, measure in how much financial stress one might experience on top of this with significant loans.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying measure it. Honestly.

 

[Brandon K.]

I enjoy the honesty as it gives me a good idea of what I'm looking at. My life recently consisted of 630 am to 6pm Monday through Friday and spending 6pm to 7pm with my kids before they would go to bed. I then would get on the computer and do school work from 7-9 and then spend about an hour with my wife after that before starting the whole thing over again. I made it work, is that a good idea of what may schedule will be like? More/less rigorous? I just like to have the best understanding I can so it's not such a slap in the face.

 

[Brandon K.]

I enjoy the honesty as it gives me a good idea of what I'm looking at. My life recently consisted of 630 am to 6pm Monday through Friday and spending 6pm to 7pm with my kids before they would go to bed. I then would get on the computer and do school work from 7-9 and then spend about an hour with my wife after that before starting the whole thing over again. I made it work, is that a good idea of what may schedule will be like? More/less rigorous? I just like to have the best understanding I can so it's not such a slap in the face.