Facilities Tour Question and some basic questions

[DrForester]

Hello,

Future pilot here with a quick question (forgive me if they've been asked a billion times before). After reading through these forums I'm currently looking at ATP and Ari Ben. I'm not going to ask about the differences, as both seem to have pretty through web sites (Though if anyone feels compelled to mention something, please do).

First question. Would a tour of one ATP school give a good view of all the schools (looking at Phoenix campus mostly). The reason I ask is before I commit to any school, I obviously want to visit. I'm thinking of trying to get in a visit to Ari Ben and ATP's school in one trip to save some money. I'm wondering if the visit to the Orlando school would give a good view of how training occurs at the Phoenix school.

Second question. What are some of the negative things about ATP flight schools? I can read their web sites for all the good things (And there seems to be a lot), but I find knowing some of the negatives can be very insightful, and has helped me to get a better perspective on other schools, and has helped me narrow down the schools I'm looking at.

[SpiraMirabilis]

PHX has a pretty good location, the old offices in the FBO are kind of ratty but the new ones are nice. I'd visit it.

Negatives -- 7 days a week usually at the school, the pro-rated amount is greater than the program cost -- I mean if you quit or get kicked out for some reason (extremely rare) ATP starts nickel and diming you for everything, ground school, cessna at $150/hr, seminole at $~350/hr (!), sim time, $200/wk for housing, etc. It is set up in such a way that you're kind of dicked over if you quit -- the only thing from ATP's website I found slightly misleading was the refund/discontinuance policy.

All in all ATP is a good school, you'll be done fast and be competant.

[fly8slep]

Originally Posted by SpiraMirabilis

All in all ATP is a good school, you'll be done fast and be competant.

To the thread starter, ATP locations are pretty much the same although I'm guessing their main one in Florida must be a lot bigger. Usually, the smaller schools are deserted, you're lucky if you happen to drop by when an instructor is there with a student. Otherwise, you have to call and tell the instructor that you'd like to have a tour, from my experience they're not too happy about giving tours... Negatives about ATP is their price, about 50K total for 190 hours of multi, also they're pt61.

I've been to ariben, not much there, small building with a few maintenance hangers is all it is. Although I do have to say that it did look like a busy place. Unless you live within a few hours of Ariben, I wouldn't waste any money visiting the place, you'll get familiar with the place very quickly. Or you can just google earth it. Negatives about Ariben, price is NOT 36K, after everything it's more like 42K. Old planes.

[SDpilot]

ATP is a great school, if you are trying to get through all your ratings as fast as you possibly can (pvt multi in 1 week, ira in 3 weeks, commercial multi in 1 week, cfi(s) / comm single in 2 weeks). It's similar to placing a fire hose in your mouth and turning it on full blast. You really need to be able to pick up new concepts quicky, and be able to teach all those newly learned concepts, in time for cfi school at the end of the 90 days, if you are on the accelerated track. I attended the PHX location, and had a blast. With that said, there were a lot of distractions there... bar across the street, swimming pool & jacuzzi, beach volleyball court, etc. If you're serious about your career, you should have no problems with these. All in all, I'm glad I chose ATP. Any school you choose is going to have its pitfalls, but for me, the positives far outweighed the negatives. I personally opted to come home to work on the cfi portion, as I felt 2 weeks was a little fast for me. But the rest of the program ran flawlessly, and it was an experience I'll carry with me forever. I made great friends, flew all over the country in a twin, and learned more than I ever thought possible in three months! Good luck with wherever you choose!

[UCRpilot]

the best thing to do would be to call ahead and see if there is a flight instructor there to show you around...because more often than not they are up with a student or teaching them...they usually don't have time to show people around. But if you let them know you are coming, they may make for some time to show you around. i can't speak for all the ATP locations yet because I haven't seen all of them because I'm still new but the one I'm at, theres a simulator, break room, computer room, couches, and a study area....pretty basic

SDpilot: You mentioned that you opted out at the end when you got to the CFI portion...how did you go about doing that? Did the price still remain the same, or did you have to pro-rate the program?

[SDpilot]

Well, like others have said in previous posts, they do not like to refund any money if you cut the program short... for me, I sat through the week of ground school, and used a couple of the flight hours, to sort of prep myself for CFI school back here in San Diego... thus, there was no refund for me.

[avi8tor1983]

I went to the ATP Arlington location to interview. The instructors knew I was going to be there but there was also a couple of guys there just to ask about the location and the program. The chief pilot is a really good guy. After my interview he showed me around the location and asked if I had anymore questions. He even showed me the maintnance hanger and inside the aircraft they had. All in all I will let you know what I think about it once i compleate the course...90 days(Less is what i'm shooting for) from Feb 19th

[sigpilot]

ATP's locations are different at each location. ORL is a two instructor location and not very busy. PHX is one of the biggest locations now and I would recommend visiting where you plan on training. PHX is a fast track location and you might be able to check out the student apartments as well, not something you can do at ORL. Plus, PHX has 2000,01,02,and 05 seminoles, ORL usually has the older birds....