My name is Devan Bayne and tomorrow is my first day at ATP in Indianapolis! The last few months I have used this website as a tool to learn more about the program and view other students experiences at ATP. I figure now that I am starting I can do as others have done and post/ update my progress along the way for others to see. A little about myself, I am 25yrs old. I have a bachelor’s degree and was working the last 6 months full time as an engineer and additionally was working the last 1.5yrs for SkyWest as a cross utilized agent at my local airport. March 21st I took my first flight lesson at my local part 61 school and earned my Private Pilot’s License on July 3rd in a Cessna 150. Since then I have been flying on my own to gain hours and will be starting tomorrow in the Credit private program with exactly 78 hours.
I read many times on this forum that everyone recommends taking the written exams before your start date so on August 8th I signed up with Sheppard air for their Instrument exam prep course. Since that time I have completed the following:
8-23-23: IRA - 90%
8-23-23: FII - 96%
9-02-23: CAX - 96%
9-09-23: FIA - 95%
Still need to take the FOI
I wanted to get ahead as much as possible so I also completed 9 out of 10 of the Instrument elevate courses before my start date of tomorrow. My goal is to study hard and try my best and hopefully that will lead to completing the program on timeline.
Yesterday, I moved down to Indianapolis from Michigan and while checking out the area today I decided to see what my daily drive is going to look like and stopped into the training center and was able to meet some of the other students and instructors. Tomorrow will be check in at the center and I already have some time on the schedule tomorrow in the simulator before going up in the air on Tuesday!
The rest of my night will persist of getting all my materials together for the morning and reviewing the Piper Archer training Supplement. Oh and also shaving my beard off : … I’m really excited and looking forward to this next chapter in my life and will update this thread along the way!
Awesome scores! I start a week after you on the 18th, but starting from zero. I’ll be training at the Blaine, MN location in the Twin Cities. I also have roots in Michigan, but haven’t lived there for several years.
Congratulations, Devan! This summer it seems like you’ve been working hard towards this, and you must be so proud of yourself. Keep going, sir! I also plan to enroll in ATP Indy either this year or beginning of next year See you there eventually!
Olivia, thank you for the words of encouragement. I hope to see you in Indy! I know everyone’s circumstances are different but hopefully you can get started as soon as possible!
Thanks for such a thoughtful write up. Sounds like you did exactly what you should and more to ensure you’re set up for success! I know your instructor will be impressed meeting you today and seeing how much preparation you did. It will pay off in dividends.
Hope you have a great day. The first day of the rest of your career! Let us know how it goes when you can
Congrats on getting all those writtens that you listed with scores completed. This was a nice introduction to a journey that you are about to embark on, kudos! If you can continue to strive to stay ahead, you will do well in the program.
I look forward to seeing your check-in status throughout the program, program first, forum second.
It’s been a while but I just wanted to provide a little update on how things are going…
I had my first day on 9-11 and my first flight the next day showing my instructor my takeoffs and landings as I came in with private credit. We then started instrument training and September consisted of a lot of flying! I ended up flying to places like Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Lexington. In just under a month of training on October 10th I was endorsed for the instrument checkride. Unfortunately, due to DPE’s being so backed up I had to wait until November 1st for my checkride date. But during that downtime I was able to complete my last written exam the FOI and received a 98% on it.
Another student, instructor and I flew to Columbus Halloween night and spent the night there and on November 1st I passed my instrument checkride!
I now have a crew evaluation flight and then will be doing the crew phase to start building some hours up. For being a smaller training center at KHFY, there is a decent amount of students all in the same phase of the program so it is nice being able to study and conduct group grounds together. My time in the program so far has been very enjoyable and I look forward to going into the training center everyday!
Devan,
I’ve heard a lot about DPE availability and understand it can cause some delays. With that in mind, For those 20 days or so before your checkride, what did you do (besides your FOI exam)? Were you able to get flights to help keep you proficient? I’d imagine you’d be able to use the simulator when it was available to assist in proficiency as well, I’m just curious if you got some actual flight time as well and if you had to pay extra or what that process was like.
Thanks for taking the time to update your experience and congrats!
-Steve
Congrats on the instrument rating! It can be a challenge to keep yourself sharp during all that downtime but sounds like you handled it very well. Good luck on the crew eval. It’s pretty relaxed and a fun XC to introduce the next phase, in my opinion the best phase of the program! You get to travel quite a bit and expertise a taste of what it would be like flying for a living. Plus you get to meet other students and cultivate friendships over hours in the plane.
@Steve86 When I went though the program and instructed, any checkride delays that was out of the students control meant optional once a week proficiency flights. If the student chooses to do so, flight hours comes from another phase of the program so you don’t have to pay any extra out of pocket. Of course, the sim is also available and free of charge.
Congrats on passing your instrument checkride, and alas! It’s crew time, one of many students’ favorite phases of the program. The time you get to take the knowledge and skill set you’ve developed so far and apply it with another student (or instructor). Always have a backup plan, even if there isn’t one to begin, weather this time of the year can change rapidly, always be on the lookout. Enjoy crew!!
I also recently ran into a month long day delay due to DPE availability. Once you use all of your hours for that stage, ATP will give you 1 hr. actual flight time every 7 days if you are waiting for a checkride (they just switched this from 1 hour total time to actual flight time which is awesome). There are some other stipulations around this flight time, but they will credit your account with this flight if you pass the checkride. I only had to utilize this once as you can strategize and stretch out your hours with your instructor for at least a couple weeks.
I always recommended to students when I was instructing those experienced delays, get to the training center and utilize ALL your available resources. This meant, your peers, the simulator when it was open, instructors (not just yours), the whiteboard, find a CFI applicant or someone that just got back from CFI academy, anything that is at your fingertips is beneficial. What isn’t beneficial is sitting at home at the breakfast bar wondering what your friends from the training center are doing.
I could always tell a difference in student that continued to study through delays compared to one that may have slacked. The DPE’s can tell as well, a lot of them have been doing it for years and know when you have a weak point, and then ask how long you’ve had to wait for a checkride.
Brady,
I definitely plan on being in the training center all the time. I was just curious in this particular instance what kind of additional options are available. Just makes me glad I planned additional reserve funds into my loan in case there are delays due to DPE shortages. I am sure that staying on top of studies, using the sim, etc. are helpful but I’d also imagine there is no replacement for actual flight time.
Thanks
-Steve
Update time! I PASSED MY COMMERCIAL CHECKRIDE YESTERDAY!
After passing my instrument checkride on November 1st the next phase of the program was crew where during that phase I logged about 36 hours in 5 days of flying and I was fortunate enough to fly all around the eastern part of the United States with stops including Detroit Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and was able to spend a couple days down in Florida with stops in Tampa, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale! During that time me and a partner spent the night in various hotels and were airlined multiple times to be relocated. This was by far my favorite part of the program so far as it was a blast!
After that Began the commercial phase of the program where I got airlined to Fort Myers again to relocate a TAA plane up to Indy and knock out those hours! It was a Cessna 182 high performance plane and was fun to fly. Commercial was a fun phase with some night flying and getting back into maneuvers again. Weather this time of year up here in Indy prevented a few days of flying but we took advantage of every day we could fly!
I’m just over 3 months into the program and am very happy with how everything has gone so far! After the holiday break I will begin CFI academy!
Congratulations, you are officially a professional pilot now!
the crew phase really is the most fun part of the program and the actual, real world, cross country experience is one of the many things that sets ATP apart from other schools.
Thank you for the update, please keep them coming!
… I’m really excited and looking forward to this next chapter in my life and will update this thread along the way!
See you there eventually!
