I am reaching out for any information on the ATP Mckinney, Texas location and if anyone has had any interacting or were students at that location? I will be moving to Texas soon and trying to make the most educated decision when it comes to the proper schooling for me.
I know baby steps are important but I plan to stay in Texas, I have been browsing the Envoy cadet program and the United Aviate programs as spring boards to the next level. Can anyone inform me on the good and bad of each?
I know the internet has horror stories about each of part of this post but I wanted to reach out here and see if I can squash some of them.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, welcome back to the forum. The last time I was at the McKinney location was 2020.
However, with that I recommend conducting an admissions flight and touring the facility, speaking with current student and instructors. While none of us have participated in the United Aviate Academy, I can say that I know few individuals who desired that pathway. ATP has been around 40 years, yes, 40 years! While Aviate is new, ATP has produced thousands of airline pilots that presently fly in the United States. There’s pros and cons of any flight school if you go and tour, I say that open-mindedly. The best flight school for you is the one that you decide is… I applaud you for taking the time to do your research and that is extremely important during this time of prospecting schools. I invite you to take a look at ATP’s direct link to the McKinney location:
I recommend you call and schedule a tour of the Mckinney location, it really is the best way to get a feel for the location.
United’s program can be confusing in that they named two different programs very similar names. Are you referring to Aviate Academy, or the Aviate program?
I. Love. It. Seriously, I thoroughly enjoy my time at Piedmont, and the smaller company vibes. The training department is fantastic and no matter where I am, I know someone on the crew. For me, the base was a selling point!
I was initially not a fan of cadet type programs, but I am starting to see their advantage. I see nothing wrong with partaking in Aviate, just keep your options open for other carriers as well.
Call the admission department and set up a discovery flight and tour of the Mckinney location the next time you’re in town. It’s really the best way to get a feel for a school and the students and staff there. The best part though, you really can’t go wrong! Every location has the exact same program to offer, the timeline is identical and you can expect the same great experience.
As for cadet programs, I’d recommend cooling your jets just for right now! It can be exciting to start dreaming of where you want to fly and get a CJO in hand but you haven’t even flown a single hour yet! Focus on what’s right in front of you first, getting started in the program and being successful in it. 7 first time check ride passes will do wonders for your future cadet applications once you’ve completed the program. I know the advertisements sound like you’re losing out if you don’t apply right now, but I promise that’s not the case!
I did all my training at TKI and absolutely loved it. It’s a great location for both student and instructor experiences for various reasons. It’s a Delta, so you get a lot of comms. It can be very busy, but also slow. Plenty of jet traffic to work with wake turbulence. It’s on the edge of the DFW bravo so you can get Bravo experience. To the east and north there is plenty of open airspace for maneuvers and it wasn’t that busy outside of the Delta airspace. A few uncontrolled fields in the area for that practice. The tower was absolutely amazing. The FBO was amazing. Out of a handful of ATP locations I’ve trained at in a few different states, TKI was my favorite and will always hold a special place in my heart.
With all that said, I completed my training the beginning of 2021. I did visit the location a year ago and it was close to the same layout. They are building a new FBO and rumor has it that ATP will stay in the current building. So possibly no more interaction with the FBO people, which was a huge part of how great the location is.
As some have said, visit the location. Get a feel for the area and come with as many questions as possible, about anything and everything. I think the biggest thing is from a training perspective that the airport is just in such a fantastic location, it really caters to the needs of flight training.
Hannah!
Thank you so much for the information. I will be reaching out to the admin department today to set up a tour of the site. I know I will have more questions later on.
Hunter, are you referring to horror stories at ATP? If you do some research anywhere you’ll see various reasons people talk crap on ATP and it generally comes down to the student. Sure, there are bad instructors, but you can get your instructor changed out. You are a paying customer. I’ve seen it happen a few times before.
ATP has a proven track record that’s been around for decades. Good maintenance, good planes (and plenty of them), good locations, good materials, and from what I’ve seen as a student and being an instructor at ATP, good instructors. There’s always instructors or students around that care and are more than willing to help out with whatever. Group study is a huge thing you will take advantage of.
As for DPEs, I don’t know nowadays but wait times depended on how many rides were in line. Average wait time was probably a few days to a week. I have had to wait 3 weeks but that was for a specific reason and not a common occurrence. ATP also started flying in DPEs from out of town to help with any backup. I’ll venture to say that check ride wait time probably isn’t anything that will truly jeopardize your program progression time frame.
That would make sense on the horror story’s of ATP. I usually take them with a grain of salt because typically these individuals have a vendetta against them for anything and everything to tarnish the reputation.
Thats really good to hear on the DPE end of things. You would think Texas would be flooded with DPEs but who knows. IF you remember back when you did your check rides about how much did each cost you outside the program costs?
A more personal question, did you stay in the DFW area and fly for a Regional or Major airline?
It’s a hefty fee. I can’t remember exactly what I was paying, thus I won’t throw out a number that could be way off. Let’s just say it was hundreds of dollars. I’m pretty sure you can have the costs of the checkrides included in your initial loan. ATPs finance department could better answer that question.
I’ve lived in the DFW area since 2011 and I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. I am at Atlas right now flying the 73 soon moving over to the triple. My original path was going to be envoys cadet program then on to American, but covid was making it hard to survive as an instructor, so I took a 135 cargo job which altered my career path a little. I post my schedules here if you’re interested.
Thanks for the information and I for sure checked out your schedule and read some of the posts your had on your journey as well. I am super excited to get to the area and explore.
I have not yet. I will be scheduling everything Monday. But I won’t be able to do much till January when I move to Texas.
After Kyle replied to my post my nerves have calmed down about what some other have experienced. Every place is different and I hope the McKinney location is awesome when I get to visit.
I hope I didn’t put the location itself on a pedestal! The location is small, or at least it was. It’s everything around it that makes it a great location. If you can check out GKY, now that’s an awesome location.
Every location has its pros and cons, whether it’s facility size, airspace, etc. What is and should be most important to you is, “is this training center a good one for ME.” It’s about YOU, yes! Choosing the right location should be about you.
