My name is Aniketh, I’m an aspiring pilot wanting to go to flight school. Before I get to the point, I just want to thank all the students and pilots on here that give their tips and tricks on everything aviation-related! I have a few questions regarding ATP’s Phoenix location, if ya’ll don’t mind answering them.
For those that have went or are in ATP Flight School in any of the Arizona locations, how is the plane availability situation there?
Does the weather permit to fly every day? I live in Houston and the instructor on my discovery flight told me that 11-14 months is a more realistic timeline to go from 0 to commercial since the weather can be crazy here sometimes. He told me that I may be done sooner in Arizona since the weather there is great for flying.
How are the instructors there? Also, is it fairly easy to get access to the sims?
This is more of a general question open to all: Would you recommend I get my PPL from a mom & pop and enter ATP with credit for private instead of entering ATP from 0? I was exploring the option of working as a dispatcher and getting my PPL during that time, save up some money, and then enter ATP from there.
Sorry for the long list but I do appreciate any insight here!
The answer to virtually all your questions is this. Over the last 40yrs ATP has strived to standardize training throughout their ENTIRE network of training locations. Airplane, sim and Instructor ratios are the same throughout and ALL locations have their weather challenges. Further if someone had a positive (or negative) experience with a certain Instructor, in all liklihood that individual will have moved on by the time you get there.
With that in mind choose the location that works best for you and your life.
ATP standardizes airplane availability across all locations and maintains nearly the same ration of students to aircraft across the company. The airplane availability should be similar at all locations.
No location has weather that will permit flying everyday, period. Every part of the country has its own weather challenges and months that are better than others. I will say that Arizona is known for having particularly good weather for flight training, albeit hot.
Instructors go through the same standardization training regardless of which location they are at. Also, whatever instructors are there now might not be by the time you start flight training.
I got my private at a local flight school, it was a horrible experience. There were too few airplanes, limited instructor availability and a bunch of ridiculous red tape. It took way longer and cost much more than it should have (or what was advertised). Once I got to ATP, I had to relearn everything the ATP way. If I had it to do all over again, I would get my private at ATP as well.
Aniketh,
I am training at the Tucson, Arizona location and have a pretty long thread on my progress since I started just under two months ago. I may be biased but I will say Arizona has pretty good weather but this time of year, it is monsoon season, so afternoon/evening/night flying is a bit more rare as that is when the storms pop-up. The weather is also incredibly HOT - and the Cessna’s we fly don’t have AC so it can get a little rough.
Ultimately, I’d recommend going with whatever location is going to be easiest for you. Is there somewhere you already have housing? Can you stay with a friend or family member near a specific location? Those are the things I’d be looking at because you’re not going to have time to work and unless you’re generationally wealthy or have saved up a nice nest egg…moving just for the sake of perceived “better weather” would ultimately be more expensive - and flight training is already expensive!
Plane Availability: At my location we usually have 3-4 planes and I think we have about 12 or so students. Planes are available and I’ve flown pretty much everyday since starting however sometimes planes breakdown but our maintenance at Tucson is usually pretty quick.
Weather: I’ve flown just about everyday since starting but the weather is constantly changing. Some mornings have storms but that is usually a rare occurrence - we typically (this time of year) have afternoon/evening storms. This has prevented me from being able to do my Night Cross Country flight so despite generally good weather, there are no guarantees that it is always going to cooperate.
Instructors/Sims: All the instructors at my location are awesome. There are group ground lessons multiple times per week and I’ve even sat in other student’s ground lessons. All the instructors work together and with any student having any questions or concerns. I can’t speak for other locations obviously but at my location, everyone is super helpful and extremely friendly! The sim is available for use anytime it isn’t scheduled for a training event. The student dashboard has an option to view when the sim is scheduled and you can work with your instructor to reserve it but training events do get priority.
PPL Elsewhere: I started with zero experience and am working on my PPL portion of the training now - I don’t really have anything to compare it to but if you’re going to go through ATP, why not start off on the right foot and get the full training. A couple of the instructors at my location got their PPL somewhere else before committing to ATP and they all tend to say it took a longer time than they wanted
I’d recommend cruising this forum as there are tons of threads on student experiences.
Best of luck!
-Steve
Everyone’s already provided great insight and feedback. I’ll add to what everyone has already:
While we can’t promise there is someone active on the forum that is an Arizona student (even though Steve is), you should know that regardless of the location you’re training at - you are going to receive the same program as the student starting at another location at the same time. The only variant maybe, plane make/model, if you fly Cessna or Piper.
Did you conduct this discovery flight at an ATP location? If so, why would they tell you 11-14 months? To also note, you’re saying Zero Time to Commercial, where did CFI/CFI-I/MEI disappear to in this discussion? Weather changes constantly, while in one location you may have warmer summers, another you may face colder winters. ATP strategically place’s locations that ensures students will remain on-time, within their promised timeline. If ATP felt that a location was not beneficial to you (as a student) or company, they would withdrawal any proposed training center locations.
Seems you need to schedule an Admissions Flight specifically for the location you’re interested in. I recommend visiting the training schedule on a scheduled date through Admissions and see them for yourself.
The only reason we recommend obtaining the Private Pilot certificate outside of ATP is one of two reasons:
You are unsure if the flying career is for you, and you want to sample the water; or
ATP recommends obtaining the PPL before coming into the program.
Needless, I recommend reaching out directly to ATP and inquiring to schedule a training center tour/Admission Flight for the location you’re interested in, to learn more about ATP, and the training center.
Thanks Chris! Yes, I see your point about having to relearn everything the ATP way. That is something I saw in other people’s reviews as well. Might as well start at ATP in that case!
Thanks for sharing your experience Steve, it sounds incredible! Not sure why I have the bad habit of fantasizing Arizona weather haha, it sounds like ya’ll have those inclement weather days just like Houston
Thanks for the insight Brady! The discovery flight I took was at the ATP location I am interested in training at. The instructor that was with me on the discovery flight is the one that told me about the 11-14 month timeline.
Aniketh,
I will say I’ve been able to fly a lot but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had delays. And weather isn’t the only delay - DPE availability is a cause for delays as well and probably a big part of why ATP transitioned from a 9-month program to a 12-month program. I’ve been checkride ready for two weeks but have heard of students waiting longer than that. I’m hoping to get scheduled soon so I can finish up my private portion and move on to instrument. Overall, I’m extremely happy with ATP and look forward to moving on from private - just know, that no matter what location, there will always be things outside of your control as well as things outside of ATP’s control - be prepared for delays and be ready when the time comes!
Let us know what you decide moving forward!
Good luck!
-Steve
Hey Brady! Sorry for the delayed response, life got in the way haha
I will be starting with ATP from zero time! Before starting the program, I will be studying for and taking all 6 writtens to give me more time to focus on flying during flight training. Excited to begin this journey! Thanks again for your insight!
If you don’t mind me asking which location in Phoenix are you deciding on? I did all my initial training out of GEU, CFI and multi at Mesa gateway (IWA) and have some insight on all other locations in Arizona and would be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Currently in Indoc to hopefully be back instructing at GEU so I’ll keep my eyes open for your response but might not be able to respond back until I get done with indoc so I can keep all focus at the moment on the goal.
Hey Jason! I was deciding between Phoenix or Houston-Conroe (my hometown). I decided to stick to Houston-Conroe. Appreciate you willing to help out though!
