The article has nothing to do with the tour. The tour is really just about getting a chance to see the training center in person. For me, it helped everything feel more realistic. I could see myself training there.
I guess if you are not sure about the pilot gear that you are going to order you might be able to ask around if you happen to find anyone that doesn’t look too busy.
You have been asking a lot of good questions on the forum and I am sure you have been reading 20 articles for every question you ask. So, really you have already started your “tour” by engaging with us.
Ask any lingering questions while on your tour, but mostly just enjoy it and take it all in and if something comes up afterward you know where to find us.
I simply wanted to get to know the instructors at the training center, they are the ones conducting the training events, and even though I didn’t have a say in who would be my instructor…I wanted to get to know some ahead of time to make sure it was the right fit for me. Maybe get to sit in one of the planes or have a crack at the simulator, familiarize yourself with the environment making sure you’re comfortable there; You will be spending a lot of time there.
Chris’s link has a great list of questions that one could ask, I recommend checking those out from his above link.
Brady did you always plan at enrolling at the location you ended up with? Did you ever consider any others? Besides the “every location is the same, pick the one that works for you,” do you feel picking one with my diverse weather made you a better pilot? Getting snow in the northwest or mountain states, wheres you would never see that in south texas or florida?
@Addison maybe I am completely misreading everything I’ve read on this board. I could have sworn, over and over again mentors saying that the initial discovery flight is just that. Not a need to prove skills. More get comfortable and then tour the facility and ask questions. Off a recent phone chat with ATP it was sold more as an hour to see my maneuvers and what I’m capable of and evaluate me. Wasn’t at all expecting that.
I even told the guy, “ahh, man, I feel like the wind is gone from my sails now.” Am I miunderstanding this? I’d be coming in PP credit, though many years removed and I was planning on refreshing my skills locally since I cant start immediately anyway. But I feel like now I need to speed that up and practice and refresh my skills before I even take the ATP discovery flight, which was 180 degrees opposite of what I was thinking.
But maybe I’ve been wrong and it’s my error in understanding?
@Addison I apologize if this is a waste of your time. Is there a direct line I could reach you with or perhaps someone I could speak with beyond normal ATP receptionists. I have had, admittedly two tremendously poor experiences recently with staff.
The Discovery flight is that, just an introduction for someone who has never flown. You’re coming in with AND are asking for credit for your PPL. That means Day 1 your expected to have the skills and knowledge of a PPL. Very different scenario.
The program is 2mos and $20k less. You do need to start with something in your tank.
I can definitely understand that though what threw me was the “Ready on Day 1” vs the discovery flight/tour element. I wasn’t planning on having the skills on the day of the disc. / tour. On Day 1 of the program, sure I would expect that requirement. But on tour/discover flight day, that is what caught me by surprise.
I understand what you’re saying, however, how else can ATP access the fact you’re ready? What if you show up Day 1 and you haven’t done a thing? ATP will have you scheduled with planes, instructors and even checkrides. If you’re not ready that’s a problem.
Further if you have your PPL why do you even need a Discovery Flight at this point? If you want to check out ATP you could simply do a tour.
Adam agreed, that is what originally started my phone call. I just wanted the tour and didn’t want to do a disc flight. Was told I had to. Which is perfectly fine if that’s the policy, and again, is perfectly fine if its an evaluation and that’s atp policy as well. Very reasonable.
I’m simply trying to get info from the school as I was lead to believe otherwise and talk through my questions. Simple grace when talking with another person as a human seems simple to do and I don’t feel as if I’m getting that from talking with ATP staff. We’re all humans on the big spinning ball, ya know? Everyone’s trying to do their best and kindness is always a good thing.
It is certainly not a waste of my time, and I sincerely apologize that you have had a poor experience. The ‘admissions flight’ is a recent change, so there may be some dated information you’ve seen on the forum - I am happy to provide the most recent update!
Our admissions flight is an evaluation flight for admissions into the program. If you are entering with a Private, we expect that you are at that level. That being said, it is still an opportunity for you to go to the training center, speak with students and instructors, and ask questions.
The admissions team recommends coming out for the admissions flight as it includes a tour so that you do not have to make two trips to the training center. If you schedule a separate, stand-alone tour, we will still want you to return for an admissions flight before reserving a class date.
I, unfortunately, am not directly in our admissions department. We do not have any receptionists in admissions, so anyone you speak with should be able to help. If you’d like, you can always ask for Eric, our Director of Admissions.
Most people do just fine on the admissions flight, so I would not put too much stress on it.
I think the confusion lies in credit private vs zero time students taking a discovery flight. I used to be a lead instructor and did many tours and intro flights. We do fill out a brief questionnaire about if we believe you would be a good fit for the program. It’s intended to raise a red flag on any candidates that misinterpreted the type of program it is, the commitment required or the mental preparedness for the program. Meaning it’s more about the personality and mindset then it is on demonstrated skills. Out of the dozens I did, I only not recommended one student.
Since that was over two years ago, there may be new detailed evaluation criteria for admitting credit private students. Like Adam said, you’re expected to be able to pick up the program like you just passed your private checkride. If that’s not where you’re at, you’re not ready to start the program. Once you get to commercial, you’ll struggle immensely if you’re trying to play catch up on private knowledge and skills.
I apologize if you’re getting mixed memos. I believe it’s just a miscommunication.
Hannah likewise thank you for taking the time to explain it. The policy seems completely reasonable to me, only confusing if someone has heard something else before or wants clarification.
Absolutely! If you have any additional questions, feel free to post here. Others may have the same as you, so posting them on the forum could be helpful
Weather is different everywhere, it just depends on the time of year where it gets affected. I had in mind of going to Trenton, the only other possibility would have been to family in Florida, but at the time opted out of that. Find which location best fits you, weather changes everywhere, every day.
@Brady I have been in these forums and threads for awhile and I’ve seen several others from you and your experience with ATP - my question is regarding being selected for the lead instructor role - did this come with an accompanying pay increase? I would assume as much as I’m sure your responsibilities increased, probably substantially. I was wondering if you would be comfortable sharing what, if any, additional responsibilities you inherited and if possible the difference in compensation.
Also, I highly doubt you were “handed” the role - I’d imagine you worked tail off and earned it!
Thanks
@StevenJay I was hoping for some sort of follow-up in regards to this thread - did you end up going through ATP? Did you choose another path?
Any update would be appreciated but I also appreciate all the questions you’ve already raised - this was an excellent thread to dive into!
Thanks
-Steve
I may have used the wrong phase “handed” when discussing about taking the Lead Instructor role, at the time it felt because no one was challenging for it, and I thought it would be great to get my hands “wet.” When taking on the Lead Instructor role you are not only overseeing your own students (as a primary instructor - IP), but also seeing oversight of all the student/instructors including standardization and performance amongst all. From ‘quality control’ flights to evaluations, it is important to ensure the standards of flying and ATP are being met, nothing should be out of line.
Some of the “out of ordinary responsibilities” I had was arranging checkrides because we did not have a TSS at the time, I stepped up and got things in place. Most training centers now have a designated TSS, W-2 TSS to be certain. I would also spend sun-up to sun-down at the training center, whether I had flights/events or not because I would want to ensure I was present if anyone had questions/concerns, or I thought something needed clean… I would clean throughout the day to ensure that the room looked clean (cleaning crews do come through, but you don’t want trash bins full and white boards to be dirty if a walk-in training center tour came in). I guess you could say, I went over and beyond every day to keep the training looking spotless and running a ‘tight ship’. When I left finishing my lead term, the training center had around a 90% checkride pass rate over 40 checkrides completed.
What comes with more responsibilities comes more incentives. At the end of my time at ATP, I instructed 86 students!
