Life at ATP

[RMcHale]

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on their non-flying lives while at ATP (if there is one). It sounds like your life revolves around being at the airport but is there time in a students day to say, go to the gym, hang out at the beach, ect. I know that getting the writtens out of the way will give you more free time, but how much do you have while training?

Also I was wondering how the cross country time building portion works. I know that you are paired with a partner and take turns flying and being the safety pilot. But do they just hand you the keys to the Seminole and fly where ever you want or are the trips all predetermined. Are they overnight trips or do you just land, top off and head back?

[fly8slep]

Originally Posted by RMcHale

Also I was wondering how the cross country time building portion works. I know that you are paired with a partner and take turns flying and being the safety pilot. But do they just hand you the keys to the Seminole and fly where ever you want or are the trips all predetermined. Are they overnight trips or do you just land, top off and head back?

The seminole has no keys. You will usually fly at least 5 hours a day and up to 4 legs a day. You could cross as many as 3 states in a single day. If your last leg is not at an atp location with apartments then you'll stay at a paid hotel.

[v1valarob]

Originally Posted by RMcHale

Also I was wondering how the cross country time building portion works. I know that you are paired with a partner and take turns flying and being the safety pilot. But do they just hand you the keys to the Seminole and fly where ever you want or are the trips all predetermined. Are they overnight trips or do you just land, top off and head back?

From a future ATP student (11 Days!) who has done alot of reading on this forum,....

Your basically moving aircraft around for maintenance (or so it seems). You call up dispatch in the morning and they tell you where you are going, which is pretty much like a real airline, you may get lines, but when there are MX issues, who knows where dispatch will send you.

-Rob

[Sled14]

v1valarob, which location are you going to?

[v1valarob]

Originally Posted by Sled14

v1valarob, which location are you going to?

Riverside, CA.

I see your in Fairfax,.. I was planning on going to Manassas since I could come home and eat, wash clothes, have a good bed to sleep in 10 minutes down the road. Then they moved to Richmond so I figured if I was going to move away, why not go somewhere different haha.

-Rob

[N826AW]

Originally Posted by v1valarob

Riverside, CA.

I see your in Fairfax,.. I was planning on going to Manassas since I could come home and eat, wash clothes, have a good bed to sleep in 10 minutes down the road. Then they moved to Richmond so I figured if I was going to move away, why not go somewhere different haha.

-Rob

I'm sure I'll see you on a x-country. I start in Phoenix July 2nd.

[CaptainChris87]

Originally Posted by RMcHale

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on their non-flying lives while at ATP (if there is one). It sounds like your life revolves around being at the airport but is there time in a students day to say, go to the gym, hang out at the beach, ect. I know that getting the writtens out of the way will give you more free time, but how much do you have while training?

Also I was wondering how the cross country time building portion works. I know that you are paired with a partner and take turns flying and being the safety pilot. But do they just hand you the keys to the Seminole and fly where ever you want or are the trips all predetermined. Are they overnight trips or do you just land, top off and head back?

Dispatch tells you where and when to go. Depends on your location, if you live near a center its possible to commute home I did this. And social wise depends where your at as well. You can request free time from your CFI and or maybe JAX not sure if they will give it but I know of some that have, and assuming its reasonable. But it will be hard to go to school or work whilie doing ATP it is full time since planes, checkrides literaly pop up whenever. IT can be fun as long as you talk to people and such.

[BobDDuck]

The Seminole does indeed have a key. It just happens to be for the door and not the starter. I actually had to lock it once when we made forced weather stop in the middle of nowhere. For 20 points... anybody (currently flying, no old timers) know where the key is kept?

Your "off" time is what you make of it. Yes, you will/should be flying studying most of the time, but it is very likely you will have a few days off here and there. When I was a student in SUA I managed to get to the beach just about every day to study for a bit. I also played Ultimate Frisbee 2 nights a week in Palm Beach, flew right seat on a couple of 135 charters and went to a 2 day tournament in Gainesville. Even with all that I would have finished on time except we couldn't get a DE for a week so I went over the 90 days. When I was instructing out in PHX my students got days off as they needed them if it worked out. Several students went home or to visit friends for 2 days at a time or took an off day to recover from a night's partying before. Ever few weeks over the summer, if we had no add on students, the office pretty much shut down and we all (well a bunch of people) went tubing on the Salt River.

As long as you stay on top of thing, especially during the instrument training, it shouldn't be too hard to get away for a half day or full day once in a while. Just work with your CFI. I'm sure they would like the down time just as much as you would.

[RMcHale]

Thanks everyone for responding. I cant wait to start.

[Sled14]

Originally Posted by v1valarob

Riverside, CA.

I see your in Fairfax,.. I was planning on going to Manassas since I could come home and eat, wash clothes, have a good bed to sleep in 10 minutes down the road. Then they moved to Richmond so I figured if I was going to move away, why not go somewhere different haha.

-Rob

Same situation here, stopped by ATP Manassas in January and was planning on doing the 10 month there so I could live at home, but now since its not close, figure might as well go to PHX or somewhere else and do the 90 day. Let me know how you like Riverside

[SIUav8er]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

The Seminole does indeed have a key. It just happens to be for the door and not the starter. I actually had to lock it once when we made forced weather stop in the middle of nowhere. For 20 points... anybody (currently flying, no old timers) know where the key is kept?

well, ive only seen 2 planes that ATP currently owns that have a locking door. we have a few seminole keys in the office which by the way are both the same. in fact a 1958 182 i fly occasionally has the exact same door key as well... after market of course.