So, student pilots.. Who are we and where do we stand?

I was wondering if anyone has heard of or had an experience with ATP flight school. It seems like a good school but I want to make sure i'm getting a good bang for my buck. I'm pursuing a career as an airline / cargo pilot.
 
George Cobb said:
I was wondering if anyone has heard of or had an experience with ATP flight school. It seems like a good school but I want to make sure i'm getting a good bang for my buck. I'm pursuing a career as an airline / cargo pilot.
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I just finished their "fast track" program and am set to start instructing for them in about a month. They have been around for a while and have pretty good resources. I can't complain about my experience with them except that it has been very stressful but that is the nature of the beast with the program I chose. They do offer financing and you can go from zero time to being a CFII in one continuous program (rather than piecing it all together). It is expensive but no more expensive than anywhere else and hey, this is aviation, what else would you expect. There are a lot of positives with them and some negatives but most of the negatives I have seen are as a result of the student rather than any specific fault of ATP's. Let me know what questions you have.
 
Baldy said:
I have just over 220 actual and 50 hours in an FTD.
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I just saw an ad for ATP with a $$$ program from 0 to CFII. I was thinking that was what you had done. Amazing that you can get where you are in 6 months. I am sure it was a lot of hard work. Guess you now just need to build time for a career eh?
 
Took and passed my pre-solo written today. Was told to have my log book and medical on me at all times from this point forward. Also told its time to get renters insurance.
 
drotto said:
Took and passed my pre-solo written today. Was told to have my log book and medical on me at all times from this point forward. Also told its time to get renters insurance.
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I'm at the same point.

Already passed the written and my school chooses to do the phase check before the first solo. That's already done. Getting my medical on Wednesday and assuming I nail the 3 takeoff/landings with the CFI, I'll be soloing that afternoon.
 
My first two cross-countries are complete. I flew to SNA for my night cross country tonight then did seven landings at my home field to wrap up night requirements. I'm exhausted. It's mind blowing how difficult airports like SNA are to see at night. While I knew where it should be I could not positively identify it until I was ready to turn to enter the downwind! I think I saw every other pulsating white light in the city that wasn't the airport beacon, though. Now for a day break and my solo cross country on Friday.
 
Timmer said:
My first two cross-countries are complete. I flew to SNA for my night cross country tonight then did seven landings at my home field to wrap up night requirements. I'm exhausted. It's mind blowing how difficult airports like SNA are to see at night. While I knew where it should be I could not positively identify it until I was ready to turn to enter the downwind! I think I saw every other pulsating white light in the city that wasn't the airport beacon, though. Now for a day break and my solo cross country on Friday.
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First time I flew into LGB on a hazy day was like that. GPS says airport is RIGHT THERE. Instructor says airport is RIGHT THERE. But my Mod1/Mk1 eyeballs kept saying "what dam% airport"??
 
First solo in the book.

14.3 total hours now. Had a nice moderate crosswind straight across the runway (12-15mph) develop right as the instructor was getting out to send me around the pattern for my 3 takeoffs and landings.

He felt I could handle it though and I did. Certainly made landing more fun.

We did the pattern work at Maryland (2W5). Coming back into Potomac for the evening was really hairy. Got gusted off the runway over the thresh-hold but I got it corrected in time to save the approach. Almost a go around. That's not an airport you want to mess with (short field, and surrounded by trees in a small valley that only encompasses the airport).
 
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It's both a bit frightening but VERY empowering when you realize that your instructor knows you can handle something that you might not think you can :)
 
Old Fart said:
It's both a bit frightening but VERY empowering when you realize that your instructor knows you can handle something that you might not think you can :)
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Any nervousness I had went away when the throttle went up. I pretty much forgot the instructor wasn't there.

My first landing I caught a gust right before flare and had to correct. I always felt in control though. It was a good feeling. No hard landings or bouncers on the day.
 
Old Fart said:
First time I flew into LGB on a hazy day was like that. GPS says airport is RIGHT THERE. Instructor says airport is RIGHT THERE. But my Mod1/Mk1 eyeballs kept saying "what dam% airport"??
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Yeah, I can see that now. I'm still amazed how difficult airports are to find from the air at times. Kind of ironic :p

I just did my first solo cross-country today from MYF to HMT. It was such a beautiful day, too.

In fact, so much I just had to take a picture as I was going up the coast and turning inland over the Del Mar Race Track:
 

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Baldy said:
I just finished their "fast track" program and am set to start instructing for them in about a month. They have been around for a while and have pretty good resources. I can't complain about my experience with them except that it has been very stressful but that is the nature of the beast with the program I chose. They do offer financing and you can go from zero time to being a CFII in one continuous program (rather than piecing it all together). It is expensive but no more expensive than anywhere else and hey, this is aviation, what else would you expect. There are a lot of positives with them and some negatives but most of the negatives I have seen are as a result of the student rather than any specific fault of ATP's. Let me know what questions you have.
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I just setup my introductory flight at spirit of St. Louis for Monday. I'm excited to see the facility and what they have to offer. I'll let you know how it goes and I may post again about other questions that may come up.


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Well, I'm embarrassed to say that I received the dreaded 'pink-slip' after my check ride today due to a couple of infractions. I passed the couple of hours of written and oral okay. Pre-flight, run up, clearance to taxi went fine. Hover taxi - great, pre-takoff checks - and then the rolling take off without clearance from the tower to depart. I swear, I've never done that before. Bill caught me on the roll and I returned to my launch point. Headed out on my X-country and everything from there went fine - at least until I got to the run-on landing where I let the ship slide to the side of the runway instead of keeping her on the center line. Damn - x-country (sans GPS), autos, slope, patterns, various approaches and take offs, radio comms - everything was great. Even when he twisted the power off in flight, I did a (nice for me at least) auto to recovery.

So now, I've got to get an hour of instruction on running landings and fly about 70 miles to northwest Georgia to perform a running landing so I can give Bill his pink slip back. I know I made it past all of the hard stuff, but I still feel deflated after all the prep I put into today. Damn!
 
Tradford said:
Well, I'm embarrassed to say that I received the dreaded 'pink-slip' after my check ride today due to a couple of infractions. I passed the couple of hours of written and oral okay. Pre-flight, run up, clearance to taxi went fine. Hover taxi - great, pre-takoff checks - and then the rolling take off without clearance from the tower to depart. I swear, I've never done that before. Bill caught me on the roll and I returned to my launch point. Headed out on my X-country and everything from there went fine - at least until I got to the run-on landing where I let the ship slide to the side of the runway instead of keeping her on the center line. Damn - x-country (sans GPS), autos, slope, patterns, various approaches and take offs, radio comms - everything was great. Even when he twisted the power off in flight, I did a (nice for me at least) auto to recovery.

So now, I've got to get an hour of instruction on running landings and fly about 70 miles to northwest Georgia to perform a running landing so I can give Bill his pink slip back. I know I made it past all of the hard stuff, but I still feel deflated after all the prep I put into today. Damn!
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There is a guy I know that it took him 3 tries on his check ride to pass and it was only due to his landings. He was set on making every landing the same whether it was a short field, normal or soft field. I flew with him and he was good at landing, but they were all the exact same landing. He will tell you to this day that had that examiner not failed him those other times, he would not be as good of a pilot. He is happy it happened.
 
Spent the last 2 days going to 4 different places to get my PIN for the SFRA so I can solo in and out of it.

What a pain the butt. FAA interview, TSA, NATA, and fingerprinting all at different places. Then fax 3 forms to 3 separate places.
 
Bonchie said:
Spent the last 2 days going to 4 different places to get my PIN for the SFRA so I can solo in and out of it.

What a pain the butt. FAA interview, TSA, NATA, and fingerprinting all at different places. Then fax 3 forms to 3 separate places.
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You must be inside the FRZ. I couldn't imagine having to deal with all of that as a student pilot. I have ventured into the SFRA a few times now and find that to be more of a hassle than its worth.
 
Passed my IR written test. One more step closer. :) I used the Sportys Instrument Rating course. There were about 10 questions that came up that were not covered very well in the course. Not sure if I lucked out and picked the right answer for most of those or the course gave me a good baseline for the educated guess. Anyhow, glad to have that over with.
 
I am at 24 hours, and was told today that next calm wind day, after I nail a few landings, it will be time to solo. CFI just said today was too much cross wind or he may have done it today, but hey good cross wind practice. He also made fun of me for having one or two marginal landings to start, then very good on the last few despite the crosswind. He claimed I was making it so I did not solo today due to time, because if I had skipped my first three landings, the other were solo worthy.

I am still coming in a little flat in the flair, and forcing the nose of the plane down slightly once the mains hit. This gives me a tendency to balloon a little, and come down harder than I should, on the plus side I am landing the plane nearly 100% of the time. He was very pleased with how I handled the crosswind, and adjusted my pattern to the windy conditions though.
 
Six hours towards my private while flying any time I can. The downsides of working and attending school full time.
 
Only one more lesson until I get my complex endorsement and then I get to start doing some Commercial maneuvers by myself
 
Prepping for my long cross-country tomorrow with a stop at Thermal (TRM) and Imperial (IPL) before heading back to MYF, hopefully getting clearance through Bravo so I don't have to skirt the border :)

For some reason, I had thought we were going to do a dual dry-run of the flight like we did the initial cross-country, until my CFI told me to remove the time I had reserved of him for tomorrow since it's a solo flight. I called him up and explained I thought it was a dual flight, but he said, "Nope. You're a big boy now." :D

Flying to new airports and over new terrain for the first time has definitely made me pour over my charts and nearby airports that much more! I am both pretty excited and a touch nervous.
 
We did the dry run for one of my 50nm+ XC's yesterday, went up to KOXR, then tagged KCMA just for grins and fuel on the way back to KTOA. I'll have to do KTOA to KLGB when I do them for real, the powers that be put both of them a wee bit inside the 50nm ring.

Very windy yesterday ..
 
Hi Jeff,

Yeah, I imagine. I had my X/C scheduled for Friday but we had a perpetual overcast layer at a couple thousand feet and then it became quite gusty in the afternoon.
 
I'm learning to embrace crosswinds. I have yet to land at LGB on 25R without one :)
 
Just did an hour of night flight. T&Gs at 2 other airports. CHS being one of them. Really fun once I adjusted to some of the differences.

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JasonM said:
Passed my IR written test. One more step closer. :) I used the Sportys Instrument Rating course. There were about 10 questions that came up that were not covered very well in the course. Not sure if I lucked out and picked the right answer for most of those or the course gave me a good baseline for the educated guess. Anyhow, glad to have that over with.
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One step closer bud!
 
First solo today!!!! Only two times around the pattern, but done!!! First landing a little gust got my, but I got it down. Second landing greased it. The CFI said it was so smooth he did not even hear me land, and was not sure I was down. He even said he would have wanted me to get a little more flair and have heard the mains a little more, but we will work on that later.

Total time about 25 hours.
 
Clouds cleared enough today to get out and do about half dozen T&G's, and pattern work in very calm conditions. I nailed every landing except the one where I was given the option to do a "numbers" landing in front of an inbound 737 four miles out. I turned base when I was abeam of the numbers, and basically turned final when I was over the runway. I felt a little rushed, and my landing showed it.

My CFI seemed really happy with my progress, and said I should be ready to solo by mid June. I'm not so sure. 15 total hours so far including today, and loving every second of this experience.
 
This is the first video I made of one of my training flights so I thought I'd share, even though it's pretty boring. I don't have an audio cable so no comms. My CFI and I left from Colorado Springs for landing practice at Springs East. I've been having issues with my landings so we've been doing a lot of T&Gs lately. My first attempt here resulted in a go-around but the second attempt was much better. I didn't include my third attempt which was also a go around. After that we headed back because I wasn't very much on my game and it would not have been a productive day.

No critique of my skills or the video needed....it was just another day of landing practice and the video was my first attempt at filming my flights (also my first attempt at editing the original boring video down to a tolerable length).
 
Pre-solo student here. I had about ten hours in towards the PPL about ten years ago when time and money both got in the way. Basically starting over and I have about 5 hours on my second go around. I seem to remember the most trivial things from term years ago but not the important things so having to dust off those cobwebs. Going to get my PPL as well as a seaplane rating and who knows what else.

J
 
Back in Dec 2002 I started flying at a school at CHD, when I dispatched for a large PHX-based airline. Took the PP Written and passed it. At the time I wanted to pursue flying professionally, took the Medical and discovered a Class I or II is beyond my reach. Can hold an SI Class III, but thats it. Stopped flying as I was dejected.

Fast forward to now more than a decade later...

As an aircraft dispatcher, I've flown hundreds of hours in the flight deck jumpseat since I used to commute to work. I've done around the world twice on my airlines planes (B777s and MD11s primarily), all from the jumpseat. I've crossed the North Atlantic, the Equator over the South Pacific, the Gobi Desert, all from the Flightdeck jumpseat. Last year I did a 51 hour circle the pacific ride, just to meet a 5 hour requirement. This year's required ops ride will include a trip to The Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Last month, a friend of mine invited me for a $100 hamburger trip in a 172 (we actually flew for mexican). Then after the flight I read of the DL as a Class III medical proposed law and AOPAs medical exemption petition - I hadnt heard of that before as I had completely ignored GA as I work in a 121 world. He also is planning to fly a 172 to Oshkosh this summer, and wants to know if I'd come along.

That $100 fajita trip rekindled it. I'm relearning the academics, and IF (I am a part of several airline industry groups where I work with the FAA a lot, I know that they can make a glacier appear fast) the DL as a Class III becomes law, I'll be able to fly again without going thru the SI horror show. The only restriction on my DL is for Glasses.

I tore thru the house to find my old logbook (found it). Found my CR-3 computer from ADX school. Its a cold rainy day here, perfect day to curl up with the 172 POH and learn the finer points of magneto checking...
 
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I have 1 more lesson with my CFI until he sends me to the Chief CFI for a final prog check. If all turns out good, we'll schedule my Commercial ASEL ride!
 
Well I'm pretty much done with my training. I have a little more simulated instrument to do. I did a long night xc with my CFI last night. 3.6hr. Atc seems much more laid back at night except for one guy that was a jerk. I'm sure it was the end of a long shift for him. I have some things going on at the house this weekend that I need to focus on but I'm going to continue with my test prep and finish up "say again, please"

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dispatcher said:
That $100 fajita trip rekindled it. I'm relearning the academics, and IF (I am a part of several airline industry groups where I work with the FAA a lot, I know that they can make a glacier appear fast) the DL as a Class III becomes law, I'll be able to fly again without going thru the SI horror show.
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There's always Sport Pilot as well.
 
warthog1984 said:
There's always Sport Pilot as well.
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True, but my wife's family is kinda far flung, and I wanna be able to fly us (plus our daughter) when we go see them. An LSA doesnt really help. I suppose I could fly me and my daughter (6 y/o) in the LSA aircraft, and my wife go commercial or drive, but whats the fun in that...

On second thought... ;)
 
momalley said:
I started training at the very end of Aug out of FRG and passed the checkride in Jan....haven' t flown since though :( Who are you flying with, NFI, Ventura, etc.?

Spotting traffic can be hard in the beginning but you'll get better at it. In the beginning I would start to flare to early as well, eventually you'll get a better grasp at high high you are above the runway and you'll start flaring when you should be.

Hang in there and good luck with the SODA
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Thanks, I'm with Ventura.
 
After a bad week after my solo, the CFI wanted to do one more polish lesson before he unleashed me into the practice area alone. Today we did short field take off and landings, and soft field take off and landings. They were kinda fun, and did serve to smooth out my flair. He said next time i go up should be alone to the practice area. Then we get together after that to do my required night flying. Things really seem to pick up momentum once you get that solo out of the way. Also, the money drain should slow a little since I do not have to pay the CFI to be up there all the time.
 
First landing lesson today! Wind almost right down the pipe with gusts to 18 so that made things pretty interesting. Touch and gos were a blast and I even landed some of the latter ones without my instructor touching the controls. Overall a great 1.2 flight hours! :yes:
 
Put .8 on the Tobago on Saturday, was pretty much low goo around Torrance - so just worked the pattern (normal, no flaps and short field landings).

Went out yesterday again for about 2 hours, out in the practice area doing steep turns (yep, I SUCK), then landed at LGB, off to FUL for another landing. Then back to TOA cutting across LGB, talking to them (very nice ATC at LGB)

Had one hell of a time picking TOA out of the haze at the end of the day landing into the setting sun - next time I'll arrange to land after the sun dips down over the horizon.
 
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