I’m pretty new to this forum so I hope you understand if I am asking a question that’s already been asked. But, I was wondering if people recommended ATP flight school? I was planning on getting a four year degree before starting flight school. But I realized that since I want to work for United Airlines as soon as I can, I now want to get my PPL before college so I have 4 years to build up time. Chris, for you, was it easy going from Expressjet to United? That’s what I wanna do. Get hired by Expressjet and eventually get hired by United. And last but not least, do you guys recommend having 100 hours ME time or 40 hours. I appreciate any help I receive. Thank you so much.
P.S. I would love for there to be an app for this forum (if there isn’t already)
All of the mentors on here went to ATP and had very positive experiences, so we of course all recommend ATP. That being said, we highly recommend that you do your own research and find the flight school that is best for you, to help do that take a look at my thread titled “Questions For Any Prospective Flight School” in the “Flying The Line” section.
Getting your PPL before college really won’t do you a lot of good as most people cannot afford to spend endless hours renting airplanes simply to build flight time. I would recommend focusing on your college first, then going to flight school after you graduate. The vast majority of pilots build their flight time by flight instructing, I recommend taking this path.
I actually went from ExpressJet to Continental, we later became United. It took a lot of work and pushing my resume very hard to get an interview with Continental. Pilot jobs at the major airlines are highly sought after and there is a lot of competition for them.
I recommend the 40 hours of multi program as it provides the exact same training while saving a significant amount of money.
The 100hr program is offered for pilots who don’t want to instruct for ATP. Many airlines have multi-engine time requirements (plus you need 50hrs to get your ATP). If you instruct for ATP you’ll build plenty of multi time so its not a problem but for those who don’t build that time can be very difficult.
Not exactly. Most regional airlines only require 25-50 hours of multiengine
time. If you plan on working for ATP, you’ll build even more multiengine
time as an instructor. If you don’t plan on working for ATP, and you would
prefer to have 100 hours of multi time in your logbook for whatever reason,
then the 100 hour program would be a better option for you.
Not really. The programs are almost identical, you simply do more flying in the twin with the 100hr than in the 40hr. Again the reason it’s offered is to ensure that all ATP grads are hirable and will have no problem meeting the minimums when it’s time to apply to a Regional. Other than that twins are fun and prettier but I’m not sure that’s worth an extra $10,000?
