I’ve been considering starting the ATP program and I would like to go to the Wilmington (ILG) location. However, I read a few accounts on here of people being unable to secure a start date at Wilmington and now the ATP website doesn’t even list Wilmington as a location: https://atpflightschool.com/flight_schools/
Interestingly, the information booklet that was sent in the mail does list the Wilmington location. I drove by the location on a weekday with great weather (most definitely VFR conditions) and all the planes were there but covered up with nobody in sight. Maybe I just happened to get there at an off time?
Hopefully this isn’t too much FUD, but is it possible that Wilmington is closing? Is there anybody here who is currently at Wilmington or has received a firm start date for that location? I know the Trenton/TTN location is accepting students but going there would more than double my commute time.
I don’t have any real info but I’m following out of interest too.
I live in Newark and took an intro flight at the ILG location a couple months ago. It was completely dark inside except for a pair of mechanics in the hangar. In fact, the instructor for my flight showed up literally a few hours late. Said he thought he called me but I never heard anything. I didn’t want to leave because the weather was perfect and I was excited about the flight.
There were also 2 students in town from their crew XC (from Georgia) and they were amazed with how dead it was.
Eventually, a current student showed up and said that due to instructor availability, he’s barely gotten any flight time but also mentioned there were a few new instructors starting soon. Luckily he was on the schedule because I then got a flight from his instructor.
I just checked their site by the way and it says specifically that there are no schools in Delaware. Very interesting.
As someone that secured ILG and then got bumped to Trenton (TTN) I can tell you unfortunately for the foreseeable future if not forever ILG is not gonna happen. After talking to an ILG instructor the plan is to sunset the location as students move through the process.
I’ve been told it’s a paperwork issue and disagreement with either the state or city and ATP decided to just keep the maintenance hub and end the rest.