From time to time, many of you come and post about your experiences in the program and where you are now, which we all enjoy reading.
For this thread, I would like everybody who is actively enrolled at ATP, or has already finished their training, to check in and let us know where you are and how things are going. It doesn’t have to be a long paragraph, just the basics.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing where everybody is!
Chris
It’s been a while since I’ve updated my progress. But as of 1/16 I am officially done with training and head to standardization in Phoenix on the 22nd. It took pretty much exactly 9 months to go from 0 hours through all my CFI certs. I did have over 3 weeks off for Christmas though. It’s rewarding knowing that I have completed this training. It was definitely a challenge but with hard work and dedication, I made it through just fine with no checkride busts. Thanks to all the mentors for participating in this forum! I found reading through these from time to time was very helpful.
I’m a former student! But you all knew that 
Adam
That’s fantastic news, Gabe. Sounds like Stands will be a walk in the park
for you.
Tory
Current student at the Centennial, Colorado location. I started July 17th, just finished Crew, and set to complete my Private Multi checkride in the Seminole at the end of this month! I’m super excited for the next six weeks as I hear things are about to speed up! My plan is to continue as a CFI with ATP once I’m qualified.
I start tomorrow at the MQY location. Doing the private pilot finish up & then jumping into the ACPP in February.
Anybody have experience at this location? Or things I should expect in general?
I start standardization bright and early in the morning in Jacksonville. I finished my Mei last week and will move on to Richmond after standardization for my cfi and cfii, as well as to begin Instructing.
Well I’ll go ahead and give a quick update after my first day here in ATP’s Seattle (PAE) location yesterday. Since I’m coming in with my private certificate already, the first phase of my training is some PIC X/C time. My instructor and I weren’t able to get up today due to the weather, but we did manage to get a cross country in late afternoon yesterday, and there was a lot that was new to me on this flight! It was my first ever IFR flight, and while my instructor did 99% of the work on the comms, it gave me confidence that IFR is not as complicated as I had thought it would be. It was my first ever experience flying in clouds and first ever flight I got to log actual instrument time. It was also my first time flying instrument approaches. The cloud levels and visibility for the approaches weren’t really a factor, but it was really cool to understand and fly the procedures for a couple of RNAV approaches.
I guess the only thing that WASN’T new to me was the aircraft. I did all of my private training in Cessna 172R Skyhawks and they have 172SP Skyhawks for their single engine training here, so I felt right at home at the controls. The only difference is the SP has Garmin G1000 panels instead of the six pack, and all I can say is it felt like cheating how easy it made navigation and the approach procedures!
Anyway, I’m excited for some more cross country flights here in the next couple weeks and to better understand IFR procedures, and then it will be diving more into some serious instrument training!
Kyle,
I am glad the first day went so well. Thanks for the update, keep them coming.
Chris
It has been quite a while since I posted on here, but I thought I would finally chime in. After considering multiple factors for my training situation I elected to delay my start for around 9 months, this however allowed me to proceed without the need for a loan (tradeoff of course, but I felt it was best for me). I began training this Monday at KSAC and although our weather has been poor, my instructor and I have been able to do instrument ground reviews and sim sessions along with my first official IFR XC today (logged 0.5 actual/1.6 simulated, two ILS approaches including a circle to land, and passing through a nauseating weather front in actual on the way back), I am currently ahead of schedule. I am looking forward to the rest of my training, it is intense but I certainly feel that I am learning at a pace far exceeding what I had previously achieved at my local school.
Happy to hear that you’ve progressed so far so quickly Kamrin, congratulations. Also, nice to see Adam and Chris are still here providing their valuable time and experience to future students. Keep it up everyone, and I hope you’re all doing extremely well!
James,
Thank you for the update. Please keep us in the loop as you progress through training.
Chris
Hey guys, think it’s been a few months since I checked in.
I’m currently instructing for ATP at the Atlanta-FFC training center. About to start my 3rd month of instructing, first month was slow with the holidays, second month was a good bit busier, and now I’m about to have my 4th student and should start churning a lot of hours out! There’s definitely been a learning curve transitioning from student to teacher, and I’ve been amazed at how much I’ve learned these past few months. Being an instructor has really made me become a better pilot, you’ve got to have that “subject matter expertise” to be a good teacher. There ain’t no slacking off and brushing questions aside, now I get to go and review and study those things that I never did or had time to learn. (oh and if anyone knows how to teach the flare and crosswind landings in some effective/timely way I’m all ears haha!)
ATP is doing great right now, more students than they can handle it would seem. But with that comes an airplane shortage (we have about 10 students sharing 2 archers, with 2 more students starting in a few weeks) which leads to a bunch of stressing out trying to schedule everything and see when airplane is available etc. When they said that instructors need good management skills in CFI school, I didn’t think they were serious!
I’m getting paid to build flight hours, moving towards an airline (or whatever route I want to pick), in about the best time to be in the aviation industry…I cannot complain about anything for a second!
Noah L
Noah,
I am glad things are going so well for you. Thanks for the update, keep them coming.
Chris
Great post Noah.
Thanks for sharing.
Adam
Got word a couple of days ago and saw that it has been updated on ATP’s main website today that they are changing the 40 Hour ME program to a 50 ME program, which will remove the ME Private Pilot portion of the training. It looks like there’s a lot of pros to this change in the program, including one less check ride to take which means one less test to pay for and less program delays in having to wait for an available DPE for that checkride. This also ultimately means more ME training time in preparation for both the Comm ME and MEI checkrides. I’m excited to see how these changes play out down the road in my own training.
Obviously, the 100 Hour ME program is remaining as is as far as I understand because students will need to have ME Private to do their ME Crew X/C.
Kyle,
That is all correct. Very positive changes for the students, it is more multi-engine flight time for the same price.
Chris
I’m going to throw in a quick update here as I’ve finished the first little bit of my training with ATP which was the 20 hour PIC XC time build to start instrument training. So far, it has been a ton of fun and I am really enjoying IFR flying a lot! I had posted a thread on here months ago before I started with ATP about being worried about getting sick during instrument training while flying under the hood, but thankfully it has not been a problem at all. I’ve even had the awesome opportunity to fly in actual IMC a good amount already training in the Seattle area.
It’s been really encouraging to see my own improvement from the first couple of flights in which my instructor was helping me along quite a bit by handling almost all checklists and ATC coms for me to now being able to conduct entire IFR flights, including approaches to minimums with almost no help or input from my instructor at all.
Well now it’s on to the bulk of my instrument training which includes a decent amount of sim training, but I already can’t wait for that instrument checkride and on to crew XC.
Glad you’re having fun, Kyle. Thanks for the update.
Tory
Kyle,
Thank you for the update. I am glad that you are doing well, please continue to keep us in the loop.
Chris
I am about to start my class in the end of March in Chicago, IL. Very excited and nervous