Hello everyone, I really want to get back into flying and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me an honest answer on how they feel about ATP’s accelerated flight training for people that have not flown in a long time. I received my Private Pilot Certificate back in 2009 and I could not continue my training due to financial hardships. I was told that ATP is not very forgiving and has (although rarely) kicked people out of the program, because they could not keep up with the pace of the training. I really want to go to ATP, but I am a bit worried about the things I have been told regarding the program.
I would recommend that you go spend several hours working with a CFI at a local flight school, both in the airplane and on the ground. If you can get caught up to speed, then there shouldn’t be any issues with beginning the program with credit for private.
Logging some flight hours along with ground hours would be a challenge for me at the moment. I am currently reviewing the instrument oral guide and I have taken all of my written exams. I plan on going to ATP, but I am worried about my lack of flying. Does ATP help with currency or offer a time build?
You will need to be current before coming to ATP. I would worry more about being current on your private than on studying for the instrument written.
ATP occasionally offers time building, depending on availability, you would need to talk to the admissions department on that one. But again, you would need to be current first.
I had my PPL but hadn’t flown for almost 10yrs when I signed up. It wasn’t any issue but as Chris said you def need to knock off some rust and get current first. As for the pace of ATPs training the idea is to prepare students for actual airline training. Simply put if sometime can’t keep up at ATP they will struggle at airline training.