ATA essays

[deceptibum]

I keep hearing about the difficulties in writing the ATA essays on the application. Besides checking for proper grammatical writing, what is hard about it? In other words what kind of questions are they asking you to write about that is giving a bunch of people headaches.

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

Question #1

"Briefly describe the Universe in 4 lines or less, give 2 examples."

Then they get progressively harder




Seriously,

The challenge is to make sure you turn every answer into something positive that sounds reasonable. Most pilots, including myself, were not English majors.

They test for personality.

 

[SFR]

Actually, the essays were easy. Just answer them truthfully. The hard part was typing them out on the lines with a typewriter. I did make one typo & if I fixed it, it would have made a whole line look messy. I never claimed to be perfect & they have a few grammer/typo problems in the app. themselves.

 

[ccfly]

Just remember they do not all have to be aviation related. The theme for all of them is CRM with a positive attitude.

 

[njcapt]

SAR. Situation, action and response. All outcomes don't have to be happy, neat ones, but they should reflect positively on you and the actions you took. Don't make all the answers aviation related. Fit all the answers in the space provided, or, if using another sheet, not much longer than would fit in the space provided. Don't use the word f@#k.

 

[LearLove]

"Don't use the word f@#k."

njcapt,

So your saying that I shouldn't have used "son of a bitch", "a-hole" and "mother-f@#ker" to describe several Allentown capts. I was forced to fly with?



P.S. don't forget "wierdo-child molester-control freak" capt either

 

[sayagain?]

Don't forget to throw in a few MDT Captains.

 

[njcapt]

So your saying that I shouldn't have used "son of a bitch", "a-hole" and "mother-f@#ker" to describe several Allentown capts. I was forced to fly with?



P.S. don't forget "wierdo-child molester-control freak" capt either [/B]

If you had to fly much with Smith or some others, they might give you a break with the language.

'couple a MDT Captains will get you the break, as well. You probably missed Captain Wingert, Stonefeld, et al, though.

I edited this post to remove the impression that I was lumping Larry in with the others. I really should aviod being specific when slagging on fellow airmen.

 

[LearLove]

"If you had to fly much with Creveling or Smith, they might give you a break with the language."


I'll give you Smith, that guy "s@cks the sweat off a dead mans balls", he's been on LOA for the past few months and nobodies complaining, most hope he stays away. Rumor has it they use him as an example out in ALPA charm school in Denver. When I was a capt every newhire on reserve in SYR that got sent to ABE had to fly with that guy had a bad story to tell. I was like, I know your pain, I was based there and subject to some of thoes guys for a month at a time.

But Creveling, what you talking about? I don't know anyone who dosen't have a good time flying with him, never herd an FO or anyone else bitch about him. Maybe you got the wrong guy.

 

[njcapt]

I didn't mean to dump on Larry, he's just kind of a kook. Too many years flying the Shorts, I guess. He has mellowed from the old days, I've been told. Gotta give him his props on the old Fred Smith magazine subscription caper, though.

Spent most of my time in MDT. I've gotta be careful with being too candid about some of those dudes. Lawsuits, and the like.