Sacramento, CA

[vaporpilot]

Can any one give me first or second-hand commentary on the Sacramento site? I'm interested in the facilities and instruction. I know it may change frequently somewhat, but I'm interested in any coments.

[DE727UPS]

Talk to Mat777. He's doing it there and I've known him since he was 16.

[CRJDriver]

I did the 90-day program in SAC last summer and I had a blast! The instructors are awesome, the examiners are fair, and Executive airport is pretty nice as well.

Let me know if you have any specific questions!

[vaporpilot]

I'm concerned about scheduling. My schedule will be pretty tight during training and availability of instructor and aircraft will be important to me. Was there any problem for you to schedule time?

[CRJDriver]

Originally Posted by rhilberg

I'm concerned about scheduling. My schedule will be pretty tight during training and availability of instructor and aircraft will be important to me. Was there any problem for you to schedule time?

Which program are you doing? The 90 day fast track or the Self-paced? If you are doing the 90 day fast track, you will be at the airport every day, as well as flying almost every day. I never had any problems with scheduling or aircraft availability.

[vaporpilot]

Originally Posted by UND_Flyer

Which program are you doing? The 90 day fast track or the Self-paced? If you are doing the 90 day fast track, you will be at the airport every day, as well as flying almost every day. I never had any problems with scheduling or aircraft availability.

Thanks for asking - I'm considering the self-paced program trying to squeeze 2-4 odd days a week in between job and family.

[Matt777]

Originally Posted by vaporpilot

Can any one give me first or second-hand commentary on the Sacramento site? I'm interested in the facilities and instruction. I know it may change frequently somewhat, but I'm interested in any coments.

I trained at SAC and just finished the cross country phase of the program on 12/23.
Facilities: The building at SAC is nothing special, but there is nothing wrong with it either. They have 3 computers in the testing room. One works great, the second needs a new video card (I swapped monitors and it made no difference) and is so blurry it gives you a headache and makes you dizzy if you try to take an FAA CATS test on it for an hour+, the third computer is dead. Just don't take the actual test on the bad one and you'll be fine.

The instructors there are all great people! The fleet of aircraft is always changing because career pilots are always moving them around. When I started there on 10/11 they had only 1979 models. By the time I was done with the 20 day simming portion of the IR they had a 79 or two plus a couple 2000 models and even a 2005, N572AT. I feel very lucky because I did most of my IR training in 572AT, including my Instrument at the end of November. I also flew it back and forth up to Salem Oregon. I was so happy about that!

Other than Dallas, where the apartments are on the field, I think that SAC has the shortest drive from the apartments to the airport- about 4 to 7 minutes. The parking lot is gated at night, but I never had any crime problem. However my instructor told me that his instructor was duct taped and had his car stolen at those apartments about 1.5 years ago. He must have had a REALLY nice car or something! Don't let that scare you away- I shouldn't have even mentioned it, but since you are looking for info I'll tell you everything I know!

I never saw any type of crime anywhere by the apartments.
Also, my '93 Nissan 240SX and my training partner's '96 Acura Legend sat in the ATP parking lot for a week and nothing happened to them.

The instructors are all really really cool guys down there!

Now, imagine for a second that you are an ATP instuctor, working 7 days a week- 8 to 12 hour days- and that you have been doing it for a year and rarely get days off...
so... there may be times when you are doing something really boring- like simming for your instrument rating (which gets really old- especially for the instructors who sit there all day doing the same thing over and over) at 8 or 9 in the evening and the instructor might give you a clearance or a vector or something and walk away for a minute to talk to another instructor about something. It might seem unprofessional, but it doesn't affect your quality of training... just your perception of "professionalism". Keep in mind that there are 5 different instructors and they are all different. I had one of the 5 and am relaying my experience. They are all excellent instructors who will prepare you to pass your checkride. I don't want this comment to sound negative because it's not- its just an observation, based on my experience.

If your instrument ride is not with Mike Troud I'm not sure if you will get taught a DME arc. You might- I honestly don't know for sure.

I wouldn't even bring this up if it weren't for the thread where someone complained about inadeqate training at a particular ATP location where the examiner was REALLY easy! This was never a problem for me at SAC!!!!! I'm mostly just alluding to that other thread.
If you ask to do DME arcs you will get to do them no matter who your ride is with. They'll probably have you do them even if your ride isn't with Troud.

I hope nothing here sounds negative- I am just trying to be fair and objective. I have no complaints!!! ATP SAC is great, the airport is not busy during the week (it's not THAT bad on the weekend) and the instructors are great!

Any specific questions? I'm very happy with ATP.