I am doing my research to start at ATP on Long Island. I went to the location this past winter and took an intro flight with hopes of starting in the spring. My living situation in NY changed so I considered working on my PPL down south at a local flight school and then move closer to an airport that had ATP to continue on. Long story short, I am no longer moving away from the ISP location and feel ATP from zero time would be a good fit in the next coming months.
I am curious to know how much time people generally put in between their enrollment date and their class date to get though some of the written exams. I plan to work the next few months part time but otherwise will commit my time to studying once I enroll, but I would like to have a sufficient amount of time to prepare! (I am very self motivated and will put the time in on a regular basis)
Also curious to know others experiences from getting their PPL on their own and then enrolling into ATP to complete their ratings. I’ve considered it multiple times to really be sure this is the career for me, but deep down I know it is what I want to do. I also feel I would be wasting time to reach the 80 hours required and may make it harder on myself to adjust to ATP’s methods of training compared to starting with them from zero time.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! And would love to hear from anyone with experiences at the LI location. Thanks!
I completed my Private outside of ATP while I was in College. Personally I was impatient and just wanted to start flying. The biggest downside to this was the time off I took from getting my private until I started ATP, about a year. I had forgotten a bit of information and had to not only learn instrument flying when I started, but I also had to study the information I had lost. I transitioned from a Cessna 172 to the Piper Archer and it took time to learn the new plane. There was also a new airport to learn, new operating procedures, etc.
On big benefit of doing all your training with ATP is as soon as you get your private, you jump right into the next phase. You are already familiar with the airport, airplane, and the way that ATP does things.
Most people have a few weeks between their enrollment and their start date. It is great to get a many written as possible complete, but I would not let it hold up my starting the program.
I got my private license on my own, it was a mistake. I went to a very small school that simply was not able to handle the number of students that they had taken on. I endured constant delays and setbacks, none of them my fault. After I finally finished my PPL, I had several months off before starting ATP, I of course got rusty during that time. If I had it to do over again, I would just wait and do all of my training at once.
Thanks for the responses guys! I got through today and it seems the closest class date for the location I would like is in February. If all goes well with the loan I plan to do it from zero time leaving plenty of time to get my nose in the books as well. Thanks for the advice! Look forward to keeping up with these threads