Reduced Time ATP Worth It?

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funkmasterflex

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funkmasterflex
I am currently considering attending a college with an aviation program in order to get the reduced time ATP. My final goal being to fly for an airline. I just finished my bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field and would only need to take 3 semesters of classes for an associate’s (1250 hour ATP) and 4 semesters for a bachelor’s (1000 hour ATP). I also am about to finish up my PPL so I would start at the school going for my instrument rating.

My question is whether or not it’s worth it to go to school to get the reduced ATP? It is a state school, so the cost is not my main concern. I am just wondering will the reduced hours save me that much time? Or could my time be better spent just flying more often instead of spending time in class?
 
funkmasterflex said:
I am currently considering attending a college with an aviation program in order to get the reduced time ATP. My final goal being to fly for an airline. I just finished my bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field and would only need to take 3 semesters of classes for an associate’s (1250 hour ATP) and 4 semesters for a bachelor’s (1000 hour ATP). I also am about to finish up my PPL so I would start at the school going for my instrument rating.

My question is whether or not it’s worth it to go to school to get the reduced ATP? It is a state school, so the cost is not my main concern. I am just wondering will the reduced hours save me that much time? Or could my time be better spent just flying more often instead of spending time in class?
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Just my opinion... I wouldn’t do it.
In order to get the 1000 hrs you’ll likely have to instruct anyway. So, it doesn’t take that long to get the extra hours to hit 1500. A busy flight school should be able to easily yield 500 hrs in six months.
 
No.

I'd focus on quality over speed.

Train in something and somewhere and with someone who can offer more than just getting you through in easy to fly 172s.

I say this a lot, but for good reason, start off in gliders and build time in them, transition to power in a citabria or the like and do some aerobatics, you got hours to burn to your CPL, make them count, later do a actual cross the country cross country, fly to Mexico and Canada, there is a yuuuge gap between a puppy mill 172 CPL and someone who actually made every hour count.

Once you get your CPL enjoy the ride to your ATP, lots to learn and lots of fun to be had, you'll get to 1500 is more or less the same timeframe, but you'll have much more to offer if you don't just do the cookie cutter way of doing it.

http://www.ssa.org/WhereToFlyMap.asp
 
For me it wasn’t. I got my BA in Economics flew on the side and saved a ton of cash. Started flying at my airline at 22 and am upgrading to captain at 24. PM me if you have any other questions.
 
Cost of degree - cost of additional flight time = _______.

That’s the price math. What it does for you as far as hireabilty, seniority dates, yadda yadda yadda, there’s no math for.

Fly ass off, apply for jobs, seems to be the one known working guaranteed solution to wanting to fly for a living.
 
How quickly does the college program get you to CFI?

Also, would you have the option of doing a non-aviation major? Perhaps at a better (or less-expensive) school?

I helped a kid do the math on an aviation program recently. “Life-ruining debt” was the conclusion. Be careful.
 
scottfromboston said:
How quickly does the college program get you to CFI?

Also, would you have the option of doing a non-aviation major? Perhaps at a better (or less-expensive) school?

I helped a kid do the math on an aviation program recently. “Life-ruining debt” was the conclusion. Be careful.
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A non-aviation degree won't get the Restricted ATP.
 
scottfromboston said:
How quickly does the college program get you to CFI?

Also, would you have the option of doing a non-aviation major? Perhaps at a better (or less-expensive) school?

I helped a kid do the math on an aviation program recently. “Life-ruining debt” was the conclusion. Be careful.
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I have a bachelor’s degree already so I would only be going to get the reduced ATP through the aviation major. It would take my full time there, so about two years, to get the CFI.

Cost is surprisingly cheap cause it’s a small state school. My main question is whether this would save me time on getting my ATP or would it just be quicker to do training through a flight school.
 
funkmasterflex said:
I have a bachelor’s degree already so I would only be going to get the reduced ATP through the aviation major. It would take my full time there, so about two years, to get the CFI.

Cost is surprisingly cheap cause it’s a small state school. My main question is whether this would save me time on getting my ATP or would it just be quicker to do training through a flight school.
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So you’d have to do another 4 years of college? In those 4 years (probably less than that) you can get all your ratings and have 1500 hours instead.
 
jordane93 said:
So you’d have to do another 4 years of college? In those 4 years (probably less than that) you can get all your ratings and have 1500 hours instead.
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No, sorry I could’ve worded that a little better. The college Im looking at would only take two years total for a bachelor’s because they are taking a bunch of my credits from my previous degree. By the end of the two years I should have a CPL as well as a CFI.
 
Any chance they offer an aviation related masters degree?

I'm not saying this is the best route, but masters might feel like forward progress vs another bachelor IF you go the education direction.
 
go to your local airport and get your tickets and fly.....cheaper and you'll learn just as much. You already have a 4 year degree....any more paper won't matter one iota.
 
How much would you spend on the degree? How much flight time would that money buy you in addition to the money you'll spend getting your Commercial/CFI?
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
go to your local airport and get your tickets and fly.....cheaper and you'll learn just as much. You already have a 4 year degree....any more paper won't matter one iota.
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But it's not an aviation degree, so he'd have to wait for 1500 hours for the ATP.
 
funkmasterflex said:
No, sorry I could’ve worded that a little better. The college Im looking at would only take two years total for a bachelor’s because they are taking a bunch of my credits from my previous degree. By the end of the two years I should have a CPL as well as a CFI.
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What’s the cost difference of the two years of college and just doing the ratings on your own?
 
MauleSkinner said:
But it's not an aviation degree, so he'd have to wait for 1500 hours for the ATP.
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how much longer is the wait?.....I bet it's hardly any difference compared with the extra $$$ spent vs earned flight instructing.
 
MauleSkinner said:
How much would you spend on the degree? How much flight time would that money buy you in addition to the money you'll spend getting your Commercial/CFI?
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The way the program is set up is that the cost of the school is separated from the cost of flight training. The school portion includes all the ground training and various aviation related courses. So you don't get any flight time with cost of tuition, which is about $2000 a semester, just the ground work and all the other fluff lol.
 
funkmasterflex said:
It would be about $2000 a semester on top of the normal cost of flight training.
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So that's $8000 that could be spent getting the extra 500 hours...probably could be done for that money.

It's very possibly quicker to the ATP level if you skipped an additional degree and focused full-time on the flying.
 
funkmasterflex said:
It would be about $2000 a semester on top of the normal cost of flight training.
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Some require you to train at their Associated or wholly owned Part 141 schools. Make sure you don’t miss that part if they do.

Which one on the approved list is that cheap? I mean, $2000 a semester isn’t great but there’s kids coming out of some of these programs with over $100,000 in debt. Have met a few. Sounds utterly painful for many many years.
 
denverpilot said:
Some require you to train at their Associated or wholly owned Part 141 schools. Make sure you don’t miss that part if they do.

Which one on the approved list is that cheap? I mean, $2000 a semester isn’t great but there’s kids coming out of some of these programs with over $100,000 in debt. Have met a few. Sounds utterly painful for many many years.
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Polk state and yeah they’re partnered with sunrise aviation.
 
funkmasterflex said:
Polk state and yeah they’re partnered with sunrise aviation.
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So count up the difference in price between Sunrise and doing it Part 61 at a regular school. Sometimes they hide the costs in the flying requirements and won’t accept you waking in the door with certificates already in your pocket.

SOME of them WILL let you escape their flight training departments, however. We’ve seen students take summertime and long holiday vacation windows to drop in at accelerated training pace places, and do ratings quick, so they can pocket more money at their side jobs for building hours. Or just to avoid paying what their approved school wants for a rating.

Just sharing. There’s a lot of ways to skin the training cat. Ever since I started in the 90s the only places that could afford the shiny full page magazine ads, and fancy paint jobs on their airplanes, were often charging anywhere from twice to four times as much as you could get stuff done with an instructor and a ratty old but mechanically sound rental at some small airport.

And at many of those small airports there’s plenty of old instructors who keep teaching after long professional Aviation careers and lots of experience. It’s really rare to find one of those at a big school with a shiny fleet. Some, but not many.
 
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