[starvingpilot]

I promised myself that one day, I would tell others of a bad experience I had at ATP.
Here goes.
I enrolled in ATP in june of this year. After everything I had heard (of which all was from ATP) it sounded like an excellent path to the regionals. Boy, could I have been more wrong. After a $1,500 non-refundable enrollment fee, and a $10,000 first payment, I thought I was set to start flying. After arriving in Houston, TX, I got to meet some of the other students. NONE had anything good to say about the school. The professional pilot carrer course, (which I had enrolled in) was to be 90 days long. There were students there that had been in the program for 2 1/2 months that didnt even have their multi add on yet. The instructors there had the worse attitude Id ever seen. It was obvious they were there to simply build time, and nothing else. Also the instructors were always late, because they had partied the night before, and left their students hanging. Many of the students tried switching instructors, which only led to being branded as a taddle tell. As someone who was shelling out alot of money, I felt this place was a joke. They promised 150 multi engine hours. What they dont tell you is that 50 is flown in the right seat, and 50 is simulated. After 2 weeks of seeing how the other students were being treates,(and by this time I was starting to recieve some arrogant attitude directed toward me) I decide to get out why the getting was good. By this time, they were wanting another $10,000 payment. So thats $21,500 invested with 4.0 to show for it. After asking for a refund, the wrath of God was then unleashed on me. They charged me for everything they could. Including 5.0 hrs in a sim that I had not recieved. After contesting this charge, I was told that there was nothing I could do about it. Never have I seen such arrogance not only by the instructors, but by management also.
After being raked over the coals, I got in touch with a friend who owned an fbo in florida. He told me he could give me everything ATP had promised for half the money. After licking my wounds and feeling like a real jack ass for not consulting with him in the first place, I packed my bags and moved to florida where I have been ever since. What a change. Instructors who really care, good attitudes, no back stabbing, and a fleet of well maintained twins. I had finally found the place I was looking for. I cannot speek for all,(although the overwhelming student population at ATP felt the same as me, they were just too far into it to escape) ATP was simply the worst mistake I had ever made. If you think this school is the best route to the regionals, you are instore for a rude awakining. Be sooooo very careful before you make the descision to go there. Listen to someone who has been there and done that. Avoid this school at all cost.
Happy flying

This post has been edited by starvingpilot: 04 December 2007 - 09:00 AM

[pilotguy1305]

I have heard the same things about this school. I too had thought about going to atp. I was turned of when I called them. Very rude sales tactics!!

[BillyEUSAF]

I think that if you are looking into a big flight school like ATP or Pan Am you're going to get the run around on what actually goes on at those schools. Prices that seem too good to be true and a time frame that is unheard of! But once you start, there is delay after delay and prices keep going up because of GAS & Maintenance & Facilities and yada yada yada..... I've been at my flight school for 2 years now and I'm lookin at just now getting my MEI in 2 weeks. A lot of the delays have been from the school but of course a portion have been from myself. I take it with a grain of salt and just try to push on. I like the local atmosphere of being at a small school within an FBO and having the one on one time with the instructors. Just feels more comftorable and you're more in the know about things that are going on, as apposed to a big school where they really could care less about you and just want your money and you cant do anything until they get it. Glad to hear though you found a good place. Hope the traing works out for you.

[ElDuderino]

I promised myself that one day, I would tell others of a bad experience I had at ATP.
Here goes.
I enrolled in ATP in june of this year. After everything I had heard (of which all was from ATP) it sounded like an excellent path to the regionals. Boy, could I have been more wrong. After a $1,500 non-refundable enrollment fee, and a $10,000 first payment, I thought I was set to start flying. After arriving in Houston, TX, I got to meet some of the other students. NONE had anything good to say about the school. The professional pilot carrer course, (which I had enrolled in) was to be 90 days long. There were students there that had been in the program for 2 1/2 months that didnt even have their multi add on yet. The instructors there had the worse attitude Id ever seen. It was obvious they were there to simply build time, and nothing else. Also the instructors were always late, because they had partied the night before, and left their students hanging. Many of the students tried switching instructors, which only led to being branded as a taddle tell. As someone who was shelling out alot of money, I felt this place was a joke. They promised 150 multi engine hours. What they dont tell you is that 50 is flown in the right seat, and 50 is simulated. After 2 weeks of seeing how the other students were being treates,(and by this time I was starting to recieve some arrogant attitude directed toward me) I decide to get out why the getting was good. By this time, they were wanting another $10,000 payment. So thats $21,500 invested with 4.0 to show for it. After asking for a refund, the wrath of God was then unleashed on me. They charged me for everything they could. Including 5.0 hrs in a sim that I had not recieved. After contesting this charge, I was told that there was nothing I could do about it. Never have I seen such arrogance not only by the instructors, but by management also.
After being raked over the coals, I got in touch with a friend who owned an fbo in florida. He told me he could give me everything ATP had promised for half the money. After licking my wounds and feeling like a real jack ass for not consulting with him in the first place, I packed my bags and moved to florida where I have been ever since. What a change. Instructors who really care, good attitudes, no back stabbing, and a fleet of well maintained twins. I had finally found the place I was looking for. I cannot speek for all,(although the overwhelming student population at ATP felt the same as me, they were just too far into it to escape) ATP was simply the worst mistake I had ever made. If you think this school is the best route to the regionals, you are instore for a rude awakining. Be sooooo very careful before you make the descision to go there. Listen to someone who has been there and done that. Avoid this school at all cost.
Happy flying

Got what you deserved twink! (see his other worthless posts)

[starvingpilot]

Got what you deserved twink! (see his other worthless posts)

ElDummo, always puttin his 2 cents in....Hes such a likable guy...puke.
Bet hes got alot of friends.

[Shep8]

My experience has been totally different than yours. I'm at Dallas Arlington (KGKY) I have had great instructors who will work with you 24 hours a day. I haven't had a single flight cancelled due to maintenance and everyone loves it here. *You get 140 ME FLIGHT TIME and 50 hours of multi sim in addition, thats why they list it as 190 hours. EVERYONE GETS 135-145 ME FLIGHT HOURS.

Houston is well known as being a sh@! hole though. You clearly didn't do your research if you went there. What is this overwhelming student population your talking about? Career Pilot instructors are limited to 2 students per phase and as long as the students aren't: mentally handicapped, need their hand held (highschool syndrome), or lack the motivation to study every night then there is more than sufficient time for every student and instructor to accomplish everything they need to do.

There are 2 types of students at ATP and its very easy to tell them apart. There are the guys who come in with the minimum requirements and don't devote themselves to studying. Then there are the guys who come with all of their writtens done, preparing for CFI before they arrive and ready and willing to learn every day.

I'm by no means trying to sell ATP to anyone or advocating it really. The FBO route is a much more cost effective route and you hardly need ANY program to get a regional job. ATP is not for everyone. If you aren't going to be wise about an investment then why bother making it? If your looking for a fun, friendly atmosphere your better off somewhere else. If you want total immersion and to fly every day then its not so bad.

This post has been edited by Shep8: 06 December 2007 - 07:17 PM

[starvingpilot]

My experience has been totally different than yours. I'm at Dallas Arlington (KGKY) I have had great instructors who will work with you 24 hours a day. I haven't had a single flight cancelled due to maintenance and everyone loves it here. *You get 140 ME FLIGHT TIME and 50 hours of multi sim in addition, thats why they list it as 190 hours. EVERYONE GETS 135-145 ME FLIGHT HOURS.

Houston is well known as being a sh@! hole though. You clearly didn't do your research if you went there. What is this overwhelming student population your talking about? Career Pilot instructors are limited to 2 students per phase and as long as the students aren't: mentally handicapped, need their hand held (highschool syndrome), or lack the motivation to study every night then there is more than sufficient time for every student and instructor to accomplish everything they need to do.

There are 2 types of students at ATP and its very easy to tell them apart. There are the guys who come in with the minimum requirements and don't devote themselves to studying. Then there are the guys who come with all of their writtens done, preparing for CFI before they arrive and ready and willing to learn every day.

I'm by no means trying to sell ATP to anyone or advocating it really. The FBO route is a much more cost effective route and you hardly need ANY program to get a regional job. ATP is not for everyone. If you aren't going to be wise about an investment then why bother making it? If your looking for a fun, friendly atmosphere your better off somewhere else. If you want total immersion and to fly every day then its not so bad.

I had heard that Arlington was a better location. I also heard that Houston was a sh** hole. I would not have had any problem with the place, had I actually flown. When I arrived there, I had 2 writtens out of the way, and was ready for the cfi written. I just felt the place promised the moon, and delivered nothing. I also tried to relocate, but they made it clear that they werent having that. Like I said, my opinion does not reflect that of all others. I ended up getting the samething for half the price, and didnt have to put up with lack luster instructors. To others considering this school, do your homework. Evidently, location is everything.

[Shep8]

I have to apologize, rereading my post I kind of went off on a tangent. It is ALL about location, what location you pick will greatly influence your experience. For example Houston is just a sh@!hole, old planes, notoriously uncaring instructors. My roomate here in dallas did his interview in houston and had to sit around for over an hour before an instructor would acknowledge he was even there. If you end up in jacksonville you need to be wearing a collared tucked in shirt and slacks or you will get yelled at, you will also most certainly be mistreated by the instructors, management or both from what I have heard. The stuart location is relatively similiar to houston. Overall Arlington is your best bet, you do all of your training in 2000 or 2007 seminoles, maintenance on the field is great. Arguably the best instructors, CFI school at location so you don't have to spend over a week in vegas or jax, and now CRJ course on site so you don't have to commute for that either. I would highly reccomend arlington if you can deal with delta qualiflight and skymates students barely speaking english and not using required aircraft lighting at night. The reason arlington is run so well is mainly due to the manager/chief pilot (not sure of the official title) Kris Swan, he keeps everything running. Some instructors don't care for him but hes the reason why arlington is so far above the other locations. Honestly I would be pissed off I were you as well. The trick is to find some ATP instructors on jetcareers or something and talk to them about their location and what they reccomend. It worked out great for me.

This post has been edited by Shep8: 06 December 2007 - 10:37 PM

[starvingpilot]

I have to apologize, rereading my post I kind of went off on a tangent. It is ALL about location, what location you pick will greatly influence your experience. For example Houston is just a sh@!hole, old planes, notoriously uncaring instructors. My roomate here in dallas did his interview in houston and had to sit around for over an hour before an instructor would acknowledge he was even there. If you end up in jacksonville you need to be wearing a collared tucked in shirt and slacks or you will get yelled at, you will also most certainly be mistreated by the instructors, management or both from what I have heard. The stuart location is relatively similiar to houston. Overall Arlington is your best bet, you do all of your training in 2000 or 2007 seminoles, maintenance on the field is great. Arguably the best instructors, CFI school at location so you don't have to spend over a week in vegas or jax, and now CRJ course on site so you don't have to commute for that either. I would highly reccomend arlington if you can deal with delta qualiflight and skymates students barely speaking english and not using required aircraft lighting at night. The reason arlington is run so well is mainly due to the manager/chief pilot (not sure of the official title) Kris Swan, he keeps everything running. Some instructors don't care for him but hes the reason why arlington is so far above the other locations. Honestly I would be pissed off I were you as well. The trick is to find some ATP instructors on jetcareers or something and talk to them about their location and what they reccomend. It worked out great for me.

Yeah.....Houston had all the older planes, as a matter of fact....they wouldnt let students from other locations do cross countrys to Houston for fear the plane would break down and have to stay there.
Maybe if I would have gotten Arlington, I would have a better attitude towards ATP. Oh well, live and learn.

[stallwarninghorn]

I had a bad experience with the school as well. My instructors were cool, but I was lucky. There were plenty of awful ones to go around. They pretty much stop caring about you after they cash the checks. The equipment is old at all of the outer locations, they like to keep the new gear close to the bigger sites. Management stinks. I wouldnt reccomed them to anyone. You can get alot more bang for your buck at the local FBO. This is a mistake that is going to cost me alot of money. PLEASE do yourself a favor and look into other possibilities.

[LAZO]

Good day, I just recently started reading blogs and came across this one, I was looking into going to ATP in Houston and was wondering if anyone know if things have change out there i am going to do a tour this coming week to see how it is.

[glacierone]

I had similar very negative and expensive experience at the ATP in Chicago, I would never recommend anyone ever go to them.
The instructors were there to build time, had no concern for the student. There were other students there whose programs were taking twice as long as planned due to the lack of instructors.
I tried to get out but could not get a refund. Management had no concern about customer service or lack of.
Please stay away from this unprofessional bunch.
I also finished up at an FBO for half the price.

[bostonguy]

i recently went to florida to visit 3 schools ,,,, ari ben ,, atp,,, then air america ,,,,,,,, ari ben was ok ,,, wasnt all that impressed but at least they talked to you a little ,,,,,,, i was a little on the fence there ,,, then i drove to daytona to atp ,,,, what a joke ,,,,, the guys were a%$@#!s they didnt care at all ,,,when i saked why i should pay 3 times the money for what anyone else was giving they had no idea ,,, no come back at all ,,, they made me wait there for a long time ,,, it was a huge empty room ,,, seemed like a scam ,,,,, 60,000$ and they didnt offer anything a local fbo offers ,, telly ou the truth there all realy just fbos,,even the academys ,,, i cant tell the diffrence ,,, i told them the only reason i went was because they kept calling me so i kept an open mind ,,,, one kid was makeing a face behind me ,,, i turned and caught him doing it ,,,,, i told him i saw what he did ,,, i think he thought i was going to grab him so he booted it out of there ,,,, what a rip off i could smell it like i never smelled a rip off before ,,, they offer absolulty nothing for the money ,,, your eating a 15$ STEAK FOR 40$ ....,and they cant tell you why ..the kid also told me i would be hard pressed to find a cheaper twin less than 400$ because i said thats about what it works out to be ,,, i said across the way i can get a twin for 179 $ wet ,,,,, so the third flight school was 1/4 mile away ,,, air america ... wow what a nice cool place ,,,, planes were absolulty mint compared to what im used to ,,,, the kid there ryan was an absolute proffetional ,,,, you pay as you go ,,, rates are cheaper than most ,,,, i felt like i was at home and they do the sallie mae thing to ,,,,, i was impressed,,, ps last febuary i flew out to mesa ,,, also ,,, so i have been hunting and i found my school ,,, but i can see what this guy is saying about atp ,,, they say oh we do call outs like the pros ...lol so that costs 30,000 $ extra ...omg get real ,,,, excuse my spelling this is my first post

[Willy Billy]

That is horrible I am definitely not going there.

[Asta]

I think it depends where you go. i actually had a pretty decent experience @ ATP. They won't get you a job, though, as they intimate--that much is bullsh@!.

[bostonguy]

still 60,000$ omg ,,,,,oh yeah they went down to 57000,,, come on now ...... they offer only 135 acttual flight hours or something and they hold you to the time line to so why do it ....... rather pay l $30,000 at the local fbo and do it all at the same speed or slower if i want to in sunny daytona ,,,which is where im looking at ,,,,,, i choose my own flight examinerat a local place to to ,,,,,, there just a rip off ,,,, if they can afford d jets or some crazy thing like that they over charging the hell out of you ,,,,, also the guy at atp was trying to tell me it cost a lot to maintain a large fleet ,,,,,,, so i said im not flying a large feelt im flying one plane at a time ,,, it went back and forth hard for a while ,,, i sure as hell wouldnt go there ,,, even if i had mega bucks who wants to pay more for less ,,,like i said in the earlier post there all realy fbos,,,, their planes are parked at an airport with instructors and you study at home ,,, thats it ,,its all the same everywhere you go ,,, your eating a 15$ steak for $40 ,,,,,shop around ,,, even if you were semi retarded you can see theres a huge gap in the price and a hole where the exra money is going ,,,, they cant account for the huge cost when you break it down ,,,oh yeah thats right to they do call outs ....hahahahhaahhahaha that cost 30,000$ Extra ,,,,,,,, come on

[rkm625]

What other schools or fbo's is everyone else using? Mid to South east region

This post has been edited by rkm625: 29 July 2008 - 09:02 PM

[jbravo65]

Hi everyone. Although I've been flying for several years, I am just recently getting into avaiation as a career. I just finished my commercial mel and now I want to get my instructer ratings in order to build time. I just so happened to call ATP today because they advertise a 14 day CFI, CFII and MEI course for about $7000. They do require that I get the written test done and that I am Instrument proficient, which makes sense.

I want to get these ratings done fast and it looks like this would be a great avenue to accomplish this, but I am a little skeptical about being able to obtain these ratings in such a short period of time though. Does anyone have any experience with the Las Vegas school and/or the 14 day course I'm referring to?

[135guy]

Hi everyone. Although I've been flying for several years, I am just recently getting into avaiation as a career. I just finished my commercial mel and now I want to get my instructer ratings in order to build time. I just so happened to call ATP today because they advertise a 14 day CFI, CFII and MEI course for about $7000. They do require that I get the written test done and that I am Instrument proficient, which makes sense.

I want to get these ratings done fast and it looks like this would be a great avenue to accomplish this, but I am a little skeptical about being able to obtain these ratings in such a short period of time though. Does anyone have any experience with the Las Vegas school and/or the 14 day course I'm referring to?

One of the instructors at my flight school went to the Vegas ATP school to get his MEI and said he felt he wasted his time and money to get the rating. He told me that he didn't learn anything that he didn't already know. Just my .02.

135guy

This post has been edited by 135guy: 06 August 2008 - 08:03 AM

[RedRaider217]

im at atp in dallas (gky) right now and its going pretty good......my roomates are helpful as well as my instructors. they all have flexibility and are willing to help out. all our planes are 2000-2008 models and i have even flown brand new twins with less than 100 hours TT.


remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder