My experience at ATP

Student Experiences
1

Haven’t posted on here pretty much since I started at KDAB. Wanted to give some insight on my experience to help anyone that might be looking for another student perspective

Everything has gone pretty smoothly so far. 3/3 on checkrides, just passed my Comm S/E last week. Currently in CFI ground school at Daytona.

Overall I’m about right on track as far as my schedule goes. I had some weather delays/ delays for other things out of anyone’s control. My instructors have all been great so far.

Private training went by pretty smoothly. Struggled a little with landings but it came eventually. First solos were great, checkride went smoothly.

Instrument was awesome. Some people struggle with instrument but it came to me after some practice, holds took forever to understand lol. Checkride was great and this whole phase of the program was enjoyable, mainly because I love instrument flying, shooting approaches, and my instructor was great.

Crew was kind of disappointing. Everyone says that this is the best part of the program because you get to go on fun trips away from your home airport. Unfortunately I went to Naples and back about 7 times and my crew time was done.

I did complex training in the Seminole to qualify for the commercial checkride, and this was a blast. I flew from Daytona to Jacksonville, jacksonville to Knoxville, Knoxville to Louisville, Louisville to Chicago. This was great and it was really the first time I’ve had experience flying outside of Florida at all.

Commercial training was quick. Only some sims, 1 maneuver flight, 1 landing flight, mock checkride and then a 1 hour review flight. Checkride went well with only a few things but nothing major.

In CFI school now. Should be another month or so until my CFI initial checkride :disappointed_relieved: then another month and finished with the program.

My experience with ATP so far has been great. I suspect that a lot of the people that have negative things to say is because they didn’t put in the work or effort to succeed. If you do what you’re supposed to do and put in the effort everyday to be a better pilot, you’ll be fine in this program.

Another great benefit is that the sim in Daytona is open 24 hours now, so it’s especially great for instrument training :sunglasses:

Also while I’m here, if anyone has any cfi checkride tips please let me know.

15 Likes
2

Mark,

Glad things are going well and thanks for checking in. Keep up the good work.

Adam

1 Like
3

Congrats on everything Mark! Sorry to hear Crew went how it did; did they have a reason why it was just back and forth?

On the bright side the Seminole training sounds like a nice list to throw in the log book. You didn’t say if it was up and back did they use it as a repositioning flight and fly you home or did you do the return trip too?

4

I didn’t mean to make it sound like crew was awful, it wasn’t at all. They did it because it’s an easy hop over and back and the weather is typically good so I understand why they did it, and I suppose the complex training made up for that so it is what it is.

For the complex stuff the plan was to fly up to Chicago to drop me off and they airline me back, and the instructor was picking up another student to bring them to Daytona to do the same training. However once I got up to Chicago the student didn’t tell flight ops he was on vacation in Vegas, so I got an extra 1.2 off free multi time to fly with the instructor back to Louisville so he could meet another student there :sunglasses:

5

Also forgot to mention that I got to fly with my girlfriend on one of the crew flights, since we’re both in the same stage of the program. That was pretty sweet :+1:t3:

6

Awesome! Thanks for the clarification I’m starting in May in the Mid Atlantic and wasn’t sure if it was weather related or not. Nice to hear of you extra time. Their loss is another’s gain!

7

Get as many of the writtens done as you can! Other than that, don’t forget to have fun, cuz flying really is a blast

8

Already working on them and thankful already because I couldn’t imagine doing this while prepping for flights everyday!

I couldn’t agree more it’s such a relaxation to just go hop in the plane and be 4,500-7,500ft away from people just you, the plane and ATC (and maybe a friend)!

9

Mark,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Glad it’s all going so well.

For CFI school, besides the obvious: study EVERYTHING, the only new things are FOIs and endorsements. Practice teaching with the other students. I found that to be helpful.

Tory

10

Thanks Tory, appreciate the advice!

1 Like
11

Did you complete your writtens before starting training? If so, how long did it take you? Thanks for the feedback, it’s very helpful to prospective students like myself.

1 Like
12

Mark,

I am glad your training is going so well. Thanks for the update and keep up the good work!

Chris

13

Thank you for the update, Mark! Great to have you as one of my classmates!

14

I completed 2 in and it helped a little. If I could go back to this summer I would’ve 100% taken all of them before I started. I had to take the FIA and FOI the week of my commercial checkride and that was a little overwhelming for awhile. For this reason I suggest everyone overachieve like sergey and take all their writtens before they start :star_struck:

2 Likes