Hi, I am currently 19 years old, and I’m planning to obtain my ppl during college, then after graduating college, I plan to take the IRA and the FII written, then attend atp flight school(Oakland,Livermore), and start instructing for atp. While instructing for atp I apply for an airline cadet program (United aviate) which gives my fastest route to United, and I was wondering if it would be a bonus if I have a bachelors before applying to cadet programs?
Brandon,
You state in you plan to attend ATP after you graduate college. Are you saying you plan to graduate college without your bachelor’s? If so I recommend you stick it out and finish your 4yr degree first. It’s simply easier to do and gives you a solid foundation should aviation not work out.
Further you should really consider doing all your training with ATP. Getting your PPL first really won’t save you much time, in all likelihood won’t save you any money and you’ll be doing your initial training at a school that doesn’t offer all the benefits ATP does.
I’d give this some thought.
Adam
Brandon,
Having a bachelors degree is a bonus regardless. Cadet program or not, having a degree is important if you need it as a backup, or if your plans change, or if something happens to whatever cadet program you are apart of. There are no guarantees in this industry. It is better to have a degree and not need it than to not have one and wish you did.
Tory
Hi Adam,
I am planning to attend atp after I graduate my university with a bachelors degree, and I choose to get ppl before atp because of financial reasons, according to atp from zero to 9 months require 83995, but if I can get it outside atp, i would save 10000 and I don’t have enough to start from zero with atp but enough to start atp with ppl credentials
Brandon,
Having your bachelor’s will definitely work to your advantage moving forward in this career.
You say getting your PPL outside of ATP will save you $10,000. That means you believe you can get your PPL for $7,000. While I understand and appreciate your desire to save that sum of money, I encourage you to research further. Most local flight schools quote the bare minimum for hours. Training part-time people seldom achieve that goal and often pay not only more than the quoted price, but more than ATPs price as well. There are many stories of people training for years and the costs getting into the $20k+ range. There’s also more important factors than cost.
That said you need to do what you believe is best. But if you begin your training and see things aren’t going as expected don’t be afraid to pull the plug.
Adam
Brandon,
I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that you will save $10k by getting your PPL outside of ATP when a PPL is $10k minimum and then you’ll need to time build until reaching 78+ hours total time before entering ATP’s Credit for Private program.
Tory
I see, I will do more research for now. Thank you for the advice
Brandon
Hi everyone ,
While I have thought about my decisions I have made during last comment until now, I figured that I should just take a break on planning to finish my private this summer, since it is expensive there at a local. If I continue there, I might be able to finish it but, with more cost of money. I should just wait until I finish college then I go to atp after, and during my last year in college, I will work on all my writtens and just retake the PAR written again, and since I passed it before with a 95%, I should be able to take care of the PAR again.
I figured and during my time in college, I will have some maturity since if I do everything in a rush, nothing will succeed. And looked around on this forum, it really helped me a lot on deciding what to do.
Is there anything else prior to atp I should be preparing for after I come besides finishing all the writtens?
Brandon,
I think that’s actually a really good and sound decision. Honestly I would focus on school and enjoying your college years. Honestly other than the writtens there’s not much you can do to speed things up. More important once you start your training, that path to the Regionals will occupy much of your time and require a tremendous amount of focus and dedication. You obviously want to do well on school so do that and when you’re not enjoy your down time while you can. This way you’ll be well rested for the fire hose once it’s turned on.
Adam
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Brandon,
I agree with your decision and also with what Adam said. Focus on college first, then worry about flight training when the time is appropriate. The airlines will ask for your GPA, so it is best to make sure that you have a good one.
Chris
Brandon,
Glad you have come to this decision. I think, well we all think, this path is in your best interest. Please let us know if you have any other questions along the way!
-Hannah
Hi everyone,
I’m sorry, but I have another question, I am almost done with one of the requirements of 3 hrs instrument and 10 touch and go’s, and night cross country for my ppl stage, should I finish it this summer, or should I just wait? I can finish all of this in 1 night flight, should I finish it?
This is before I made that decision during my time at a local
Brandon,
Totally your call but if you’re not going to complete your PPL I’d cut my losses and stop now.
Adam
Ok, understood, I think I will wait until I finish college
Brandon,
I am with Adam on this one. If you are going to wait and resume your flight training later, I would stop all flying now and save your money.
Chris
Brandon,
I agree with the C & A. No point in trying to move any further if you’re planning on taking a break. Just because you’ve completed some of the requirements now doesn’t mean that you will be proficient later when you resume flight training. I would bet that you will have to repeat a lot of what you’ve done just to get you back up to speed.
Tory
Ok, I understand now, since either way I have to relearn in the future, I should just stop for now, thank you so much.
Brandon,
Anytime. Let us know how else we can help you.
Chris
Brandon,
Absolutely, if you’re pausing training for a further date you’re going to lose all currency and proficiency so no sense in burning more time and money to have to redo it later on. Like Chris said, let us know if you have any more questions in the meantime. Please do check in after college before starting your training!
-Hannah