I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading on this forum, and I have to say this place has the most information about flight training that I’ve found pretty much anywhere. So thanks for all the great info!
Assuming everything works out, I’m planning on starting flight training early next year (hopefully March or April). I had hoped to start sooner, but I think it’ll be good to continue working, save some more money, and create a good plan for myself as I take the leap of faith into becoming a pilot. After reading through this forum, as well as ATP’s website, I do have a few questions that I hope you all can give me some feedback on.
First, I’ve been thinking a lot about where (geographically) to do my training. I live in Nebraska, so none of ATP’s locations are particularly close to me. I guess my question here is, would it make more sense to go the extra few hours away from home and train in states like Texas or Arizona, rather than going with the closest location which is in the Denver area? My main concern with Denver is the elevation could make those initial VFR months go by very slowly if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
Second, ATP’s program is obviously geared toward preparing pilots for an airline career. Do they have the same level of connections with the corporate/charter world that they do with the airline world? I’ve seen a lot about early interviews and tuition reimbursement with the regionals, but not much on what kinds of opportunities ATP has for someone who may not want to go the airline route right away.
Finally, does ATP allow their instructors to control the number of hours they instruct each month? The reason I ask is it would be nice to build time doing something other than instructing (i.e. pilot jobs that only require 500-700 hours) while also being able to instruct part time. Is that something people do and still stay competitive with airlines, or am I better off just instructing full time?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me out!
ATP tries hard to standardize their program across the system. The options of locations are supposed to provide convenience to the customer. Every region of the US gets some kind of weather. If ATP thought the weather wasn’t conducive to flight training they wouldn’t have put a training center there. Don’t overthink it. Go to the one most convenient to you.
I am not aware of ATP’s corporate connections, but after graduating the program you can join the ATP Alumni Association on FB and corporate job opportunities are posted there almost daily. You can always network with the local companies at the airport too. That’s how most pilots find those jobs.
If you teach for ATP, you’ll be a full time Instructor. Instructing really is the best way to build time. If you want to try something else after some time, that will be up to you, but you will have to terminate your Instructor position.
In addition to this, if you are thinking about moving to where the sun is. Keep in mind that if you started March/April in Denver, the weather is going to start to become fairly nice as it’s going to the summer months so I don’t think weather would be a big issue during your PPL
As others have said by March-Apr the weather is generally pretty good everywhere. If you’re concerned about the weather I’d be more so towards the end (Dec-Jan). Regardless everywhere in the US is subject to some bad weather (the south gets major thunderstorms, north gets cold and snow etc). Since no one can predict it that would probably be the last factor in my decision. I’d be looking more towards closeness to home/family or simply a desire to try living in a specific area.
Corporate flying is mainly about networking, who you know and building relationships. While airlines are continuously looking for pilots, most corporate flight dept are small and can go years without needing to hire. Because of this corporate dept don’t need to offer any hiring perks or reimbursements as more times than not if someone is leaving there’s a good chance that pilot has a friend or relative they’ve been grooming. Short answer if that’s what you’d like to do you’ll have to do your own legwork.
As for ATP instructing I’m assuming one of the main reasons you’re considering ATP is due to the brevity of the program. It’s highly accelerated and can get you to your goal fast. So how would you like it if you have a checkride coming up on Mon. You’re still rough on a few things, have another lesson due today Fri but the weather is bad so you need to push it a day till Sat and your instructor says “I’m sorry, I’d love to help but I’ve gotta go fly at my other gig”, good luck? ATP requires a fulltime commitment from both the students and the instructors and expects you to be the kind of instructor you’d want for yourself.
Welcome to the forums and thank you for your kind words.
As to the weather, over the course of nine months, the weather will generally balance out no matter which location you are at. Texas and Arizona have thunderstorms in the summer, Denver gets snow in the winter, it is windy as heck on the east coast in the spring… you get the idea. If a place had weather so severe that it would impact training schedules, then ATP would not have a location there. I would pick the location that is most convenient for you, or the one you just want to go to, and not give it much thought beyond that.
I would not say that ATP is geared towards airline pilots, they are geared towards producing professional pilots. Now the vast majority of professional pilots tend to be airline pilots, but the licenses and certifications required to be a corporate pilot are the same as those to be an airline pilot.
The corporate world is different than the airlines. Corporate flight departments will often go years in between hiring new pilots, so it would be impossible for any flight school to have hiring agreements with those smaller departments. ATP does have some agreements with a few fractional companies, you can find them here: https://atpflightschool.com/airlines/
The addition of the ATP-CTP course to the program should be a nice benefit and help any potential corporate pilot look far more attractive to a corporate operator than those who do not already have that certification.
You will not be able to hold any additional job when flight instructing for ATP. The job is a full time job and will take a correspondingly large part of your time. You will get plenty of flight time as an instructor, especially if you are the go to guy that everybody knows is eager to fly, to instruct, and help students pass their check rides.
Let us know what other questions we can help you with and please keep us updated as y9ou move along this path.
I realized today that I read your responses and never replied! Thank you all for your insight. My main takeaways from your posts are to not overthink the location piece, to become more social for networking purposes (ha!), and that my life as an ATP instructor would be very busy (which isn’t a bad thing).
One follow up question on that last piece. Is there any benefit, as far as competitiveness with the regional airlines goes, to building time in other ways? Like flying for an operation that takes pilots with 500-750 hours and working up to the 1,500 needed? I’ve seen some people say it doesn’t really matter right now because the hiring environment will be really good over the next several years, and I’ve seen others say it would be helpful to “diversify your portfolio” as our friends on Wall Street would say.
Also, as a quick update, my next step is getting that first class medical. I have my appointment set up for mid-August, so fingers crossed!
The Regionals require 1500hrs. In truth they would hire with less if they could but the regs prohibit it. How you get those hours really won’t impress them a bit and anyone who says it will never participated in hiring.
What is key however is the quality of those hours. Flight instructing is excellent for honing your skills and keeping you sharp. There are other flying jobs that can as well but not all. There are many people who really don’t enjoy instructing and think it’s much cooler to sit right seat in a turboprop or small corp jet (you’d probably even get a cool uniform and some stripes). Problem is some of those jobs (not all) involve little flying and lots of raising and lowering gear, carrying bags and cleaning the cabin. While you might not mind, even though you’re building time you’re not doing anything for your skills. Many people concentrate solely on getting hired but if you can’t get through the rigors of newhire training all you’ve got is a sad story to tell your kids when you go to the airport on vacation about how you were ALMOST an airline pilot and you could’ve been the pilot on this flight bla bla bla.
The goal is 1500 QUALITY hours. Not to just get hired but to actually complete the task.