RAL or IWA????????????

[popaviator]

I wanted to know what everyone thought about the two locations and their
personal preference. Also if you have any pros and cons I'd like to hear them. Looking forward to attending one of these locations in a couple months.

[NJT916]

Lots of folks from/at both on the board. Do a search on here for the various opinions.

My vote: KRAL!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: Check out my blog below for some KRAL photos.

[v1valarob]

This is what I effin' say!:

RAL OR NO FUNKIN WAY!

-ROB <---- yeaaaaa boyyyeeeeee

[Teller1900]

Gateway Gateway Gateway. Honestly, I've never been to the RAL location, but Gateway is still in my top three, maybe even top two favorite airports; and the apartments (San Montego) would be hard to beat!

[SRA_kbad]

Riverside Most Definatly!!! Its Southern California. Some of the most spectacular flying in the country (my opinion).

...And most importantly, there's the infamous desert triangle

[knma'91]

RAL not just cause I went there but it is more relaxed out there. Great weather, much more IMC, not as hot as IWA and a good Italian restaurant. RAL is the country club of California, right NJT.

[NJT916]

Originally Posted by knma'91

RAL not just cause I went there but it is more relaxed out there. Great weather, much more IMC, not as hot as IWA and a good Italian restaurant. RAL is the country club of California, right NJT.

I concur.

I think something else is being overlooked - the people. The people are RAL are awesome and will make your time there an extremely enjoyable experience. I mean, how many ATP locations have fly-in's for the alumni (see below).

Nick

[v1valarob]

Originally Posted by NJT916

OMG! There I am!

-Rob

[NJT916]

Originally Posted by v1valarob

OMG! There I am!

-Rob

Go Ravens!

[N826AW]

Where was Billy? Running the ballet parking?

+1 for IWA.

[SRA_kbad]

Originally Posted by NJT916

I concur.

I think something else is being overlooked - the people. The people are RAL are awesome and will make your time there an extremely enjoyable experience. I mean, how many ATP locations have fly-in's for the alumni (see below).

Nick

Who's the D-Bag in the red shirt
Looks like Nick is playing footsies with him

[SIUav8er]

Originally Posted by N826AW

Where was Billy? Running the ballet parking?

+1 for IWA.

lol

[mdolezal]

Not to throw a wrench in any plans, but last I spoke with Jim and Eric at ATP, RDU was "booked until further notice". That was as of Friday, May 2nd as well. I don't know what time frame that means, but just food for thought - may want to give them a call and see if it would be available.
On the other hand, I suppose that means RDU is a highly desirable place to be - I wish I could have gotten in there, but eh, that's life.
Best of luck,
M

[popaviator]

I was considering RDU since its right down the street from me but the reason they're booked all the time is because they only have one instructor. So either RAL or IWA seem like great locations to train at.

[tiredofshoveling]

RAL all the way, IWA is a stressed out nitemare. And not relaxed at all.

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by tiredofshoveling

RAL all the way, IWA is a stressed out nitemare. And not relaxed at all.

That is so sad to hear.

I'm going to get on my old timer's soapbox here for a second.

Back in the day (2004-2005) all of the locations except for JAX pretty much ran themselves. Sure, Vegas had Frank The Tank keeping an eye on things, but even there, the instructors were pretty much free to what needed to be done. Some times that didn't work out so well and from time to time there were wholesale house clearing events at some locations, but for the most part it was up to the local instructors (and normally the senior guy) to make sure it all came together.

I instructed out of Willie for just about a year. During that time period we would send in our monthly reports to HQ and they would send out the next month's GPS data cards. We talked to the pit operators from time to time to try to clarify stuff, and every once in a while, when we had problem students, or what not, Jim got involved. In the time I was there the Jet made one stop at IWA, and only Derrick came inside. He looked around, used the bathroom, put a Benjamin on the counter and said "nice job fellows, dinner is on me" and walked back out to the plane and left. That was the only actual hands on oversight we had. Now, I'm sure if stuff had gotten bad we would have been seeing a whole lot more of management.

But what that meant was that as long as we got stuff done, we were free to do what ever we wanted. We worked around our student's scheduling needs. We covered for each other as needed. We took river tubing trips if it was a slow day and nothing had to get done. Sure, there was always the stress of "I've got to fly 8 hours today and it's 120 degrees out" or "my student really sucks but he's out of time so I guess I have to sign him off just to retrain him after he busts", but those were all internal pressures. With the very rare exception there was nobody looking over our shoulders to make stuff happen.

I guess that's all changed now. It makes sense to some extent. I think the private pilot program really changed that. The amount of structure needed to get a brand new pilot through pretty much dictated that there would need to be more infrastructure in place. I took my ATP written out at IWA about a year ago and was shocked to see how much the place had changed.

Oh well.

And yes, we had to walk up hill, 6 miles to the ramp back then too.

</soap box>

As far a IWA or RAL. I didn't know the RAL area as well. There is some really good flying to be had out of IWA, although I don't know how much fun stuff (Sedona, Page, Winslow, Havause and then VFR down the Colorado River to Blythe and home) they let you do any more. As far as actual airports to fly out of... we'll you'll get spoiled with a nice big runway (X3) at IWA. Not so much as RAL.

[blee256]

Originally Posted by NJT916

D&Ds!! you guys couldnt go anywhere else? haha. You could have at least gone to Capone's. haha. Who is the first guy on the right, with the white T, sunglass and hat on his head?