Cessna172heavy
Touchdown on 1000' mark
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2005
- Posts
- 27
I've often wondered if anyone besides myself was utterly turned off by ATP's private pilot program...
Back in February I decided I'd jump headfirst into this wonderful world of flying. I had just graduated college and began shopping around for flight schools. I wanted the whole shabang. I looked at Embry-Riddle and Delta, but they were talking like $90,000 plus for tuition, so I decided on ATP as they were quite reasonable at around $47,000 for private through MEI in about 5 months. I flew down to JAX to check it out before I signed away my dough. I was fairly impressed, although at the time, I had nothing to compare it to. I happened to walk into their corporate headquarters at the right time, and one of their VP's took me to lunch. That impressed me quite a bit as you can imagine, so I came back home, sure that ATP was the right choice. 2 weeks later I found myself in sunny Florida, about to chase down my dreams...
I get there and to my surprise, ATP's version of a room-mate is just that - there are 4 people living in a 2 bedroom apt - something they are not clear on in their brochures. Not too big a deal though, my room mate was a nice guy from East Africa, and we got along fine. They other two guys were nice, but they had lived there for a few months prior, and thus the apt wasn't nearly as clean as if could have been (ie they parked their motorcyles in our living room). All this aside, I'm still anxious to get started. The first day of school, they made nice first impressions. They took all us newbies up for a half our in their version of a Skyhawk, which I now refer to as a turd with wings. Still, my first impression of flying, and as I have nothing to compare to, I think its decent. The next few days is when things get screwy...
Day two finds myself and my 5 classmates sitting in a classroom for about 8hrs with no word from any of our instructors. Around 5:00 we decide to leave. Day three starts in a similar way. We show up at 8 and our instructors wander in after 12. We don't fly until day 4, and even then, some of us don't get to go up. There is NO SCHEDULE for private studenst. You take what you get when you get it - like it or not. I mention these "issues" I am having with my other two room mates who have been there almost the entire program (private - MEI) and all they can say is "get used to it". GET USED TO IT??? For $50000 I'm not getting used to anything I don't have to. There is no "hand-holding" at ATP, not that it's necessary, but for those of us who have no experience at all prior to coming, it would be nice if they could prepare you for the way it "really" is there. Also, their chief private instructor is a real class act. One day he asked "How many in here hate me?" I raised my hand and he laughed, only I wasn't kidding. I left after being there 5 days and lined up a much better program (for me) at my FBO back home in NC. To run the whole gambit - private through CFI - is taking me a bit longer, but it's worth the sacrifice in my opinion. I can still live in my home town, train with people who remember my name, learn in newer more well kept planes, spend LESS $$, and they'll even give me a job at the end of the line.
Has anyone had a similar experience with ATP? I don't doubt there are. When I told my room mates down there that I was considering dropping out and training back home, they all said that they would have done the same thing if they'd known how it was going to be at ATP before they got in too far.
Take care you guys
Back in February I decided I'd jump headfirst into this wonderful world of flying. I had just graduated college and began shopping around for flight schools. I wanted the whole shabang. I looked at Embry-Riddle and Delta, but they were talking like $90,000 plus for tuition, so I decided on ATP as they were quite reasonable at around $47,000 for private through MEI in about 5 months. I flew down to JAX to check it out before I signed away my dough. I was fairly impressed, although at the time, I had nothing to compare it to. I happened to walk into their corporate headquarters at the right time, and one of their VP's took me to lunch. That impressed me quite a bit as you can imagine, so I came back home, sure that ATP was the right choice. 2 weeks later I found myself in sunny Florida, about to chase down my dreams...
I get there and to my surprise, ATP's version of a room-mate is just that - there are 4 people living in a 2 bedroom apt - something they are not clear on in their brochures. Not too big a deal though, my room mate was a nice guy from East Africa, and we got along fine. They other two guys were nice, but they had lived there for a few months prior, and thus the apt wasn't nearly as clean as if could have been (ie they parked their motorcyles in our living room). All this aside, I'm still anxious to get started. The first day of school, they made nice first impressions. They took all us newbies up for a half our in their version of a Skyhawk, which I now refer to as a turd with wings. Still, my first impression of flying, and as I have nothing to compare to, I think its decent. The next few days is when things get screwy...
Day two finds myself and my 5 classmates sitting in a classroom for about 8hrs with no word from any of our instructors. Around 5:00 we decide to leave. Day three starts in a similar way. We show up at 8 and our instructors wander in after 12. We don't fly until day 4, and even then, some of us don't get to go up. There is NO SCHEDULE for private studenst. You take what you get when you get it - like it or not. I mention these "issues" I am having with my other two room mates who have been there almost the entire program (private - MEI) and all they can say is "get used to it". GET USED TO IT??? For $50000 I'm not getting used to anything I don't have to. There is no "hand-holding" at ATP, not that it's necessary, but for those of us who have no experience at all prior to coming, it would be nice if they could prepare you for the way it "really" is there. Also, their chief private instructor is a real class act. One day he asked "How many in here hate me?" I raised my hand and he laughed, only I wasn't kidding. I left after being there 5 days and lined up a much better program (for me) at my FBO back home in NC. To run the whole gambit - private through CFI - is taking me a bit longer, but it's worth the sacrifice in my opinion. I can still live in my home town, train with people who remember my name, learn in newer more well kept planes, spend LESS $$, and they'll even give me a job at the end of the line.
Has anyone had a similar experience with ATP? I don't doubt there are. When I told my room mates down there that I was considering dropping out and training back home, they all said that they would have done the same thing if they'd known how it was going to be at ATP before they got in too far.
Take care you guys
