ATP grads how long did it take you to get your 1500 hours?

Student Experiences
1

I know that ATP advertises 18 months to get your 1500 hours. At graduation you will have 250 hours. So doing some math on the remaining 1250 I can see you need about 70 hours per month to finish on time. When I spoke to ATP staff they said some people even finish slightly before that. How likely is it to actually finish in 18 months? Recent grads, how long did it actually take you to get your 1500? I will be in Florida if that helps at all.

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2

I was flying about eighty hours per month as a CFI, but I worked weekends.

3

Awesome, which state are you in? Do all the schools allow you to work weekends if you want?

4

Cody,

I trained in Virginia, but it was more than a decade ago. Yes, all locations allow CFIs to work weekends, as long as both the CFI and their students agree to it.

Chris

5

Cody,

I taught in California. It took me 22 months. I averaged about 60 hours per month.

Tory

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6

Cody,

I averaged 70hr per month which seems to be around the norm.

Adam

7

We just had a CFI in Tampa get to 1500hrs in almost 12 months to the day. He started instructing end of April 2017, and his last day is next week. He worked a lot, but it is doable.

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8

Thanks for the response. This is awesome to hear that it’s possible. I plan to work a lot. Would like to knock it.

9

Part of it too has to be with how you present yourself as a CFI. There are down times when say your students are on crew or just waiting for a checkride. But the instructor that did it in 12 months was the guy who people loved sending their students too so even when he didn’t have his own flying to do, when others went out of town or took a day off they would have their students fly with him because of his reputation as a great CFI. So yes, you will get plenty of flying with your own students, but if you have a good reputation and trust of the other instructors, it can help out.

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10

Thanks man. That makes sense. I’ll do my best to earn the trust of the other instructors.

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11

I’m starting ATP in May and I agree that it does seem like a lot. But think of this… To become a doctor, you have to do a minimum of three years residency. It’s really not that bad considering you have an awesome career path set up with opportunities right at the end of your instructing.

12

Yeah… Don’t forget 4 years of medschool… And only then it is 3 years of residency, if you go into internal medicine. If it is surgery then it is 5 years + 1 year of fellowship…
At this time student with 0 time has some chances of getting into major airline at the same time as resident becoming an attending in orthopedic surgery…

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