2Lazy4aName

I am a high school senior (18 years old) in the Houston area, and I will be getting my PPL in a month or so. I was thinking of ATP because the zero to hero seems appealing. I know I am passionate about flying, but I’ve read a lot of bad reviews for ATP. Is it really that bad? And if so, are there other fast schools in the area that aren’t bad?

rickair7777

I'll let folks with more recent SA adress ATP.

But you need to have a plan for college as well, at least a plan B. Many folks with no college have gotten hired by good majors recently, and there might still be a window of opportunity to do that before the end of the decade. But it's also possible that we're already right back to the traditional historical norm that 98% of major airline hires have a four-year (or higher) degree.

It might make sense to get the ratings and 1500 hours and get on with a regional, and do a distance-learning program as you can along the way. If you get your dream job before you finish, great. If not, at least you're putting time at the regional waiting to progress seniority, build hours and upgrade to good use. In that case you'd want to try to finish the degree no later than the time you upgrade at the regional... that way you'll hit two big competitive miletsones at once.

CFI Guy

There is a difference between having a passion for flying and the actual aptitude to do it. I would want to know before I committed to doing something professionally.

There is no rush to get all your ratings. Do not go into debt for this career. ATP has ruined many people's careers before it even started. At 18 it doesn't make sense to enter a fast track program.

Enroll in college and work on your degree. Major in something outside of aviation. Get your private pilot certificate and maybe your instrument at local school (pay as you go). You're young- have fun flying and enjoy it before it becomes a job.

QRH Bingo

As many have said, The most difficult thing about learning to fly is paying for it. How are you planning on financing your goals?
I would also research your ability to attend a community college while obtaining your ratings. That way, when you reach the regional level, an online program would be easy to complete. You know, kill two birds with one stone, kinda thing.

Sliceback

Friend's son went straight from H.S. to a 'zero to hero' flight academy. Loving it (for the 'but college is a blast' folks). Airline linked flight school/academy. Might be at the major partner at 25 yrs of age. That's a big attraction if you're into flying. College isn't needed up front as it can be achieved later. The difference at getting to a major airline a year earlier is worth over $500,000. That more than pays for getting a collegee degree as a backup plan after the flying career is established.

Sliceback

This ^^^^...

Sliceback

Getting your PPL now is a great plan. By the end of that you will be much farther along understanding if you'll interested in pursuing flying as a career. At that point if you jump on the 'zero to hero' program you should be a working CFI a year after graduating from H.S. Two years later you'll be at 1500 hrs which is the minimum to get on with a regional. Push hard to get to 1500 hrs (actually 1430-1450 TT before they can hire you). TT really matters, MEL or jet MEL, or turbine MEL, really helps. Personally I'm leery of a job flying 200-300 hrs a year in a great jet. It will take you 4-5 yrs to get from 1500 hrs to 2500 TT. Having 500 hrs MEL and 2000 TT might not get you past the "X" hrs minimum hiring standard. Next up after TT is MEL hrs as a minimum. If you're a CFI or pipeline pilot you'll have a bunch of PIC time by the time you get to 1500 TT.

Good luck.

TiredSoul

• A lot of 0-Hero are “airline linked”. This can mean everything or nothing
• “Might be” indeed. There’s no guarantee and everything is dependent on the market situation.
  Might be, should be, could have been….
• There’s always one lucky person that makes all other behave like lemmings.
• Don’t measure your own expectations on someone else’s succes.

JohnBurke

You could go.

"Should" is subjective, and only you can decide that.

Flight schools are in the business of training, and their money is made by recruiting students who pay them to train. Flight schools tend to make a lot of promises about what you might do after that training, but that's not really their concern. Their concern is reeling you in and taking your money. They do that very well.

I went to an ag school as a teen. It promised job placement after, which was a crucial part of the reason I chose that school. I was there six months, and at the conclusion, saw a number of other students come and go. Not one of them got a job. At the conclusion of my training, I was told that I needed a car (didn't have one), and that I'd need to start driving, and to ask every operator I encountered, for a job. Eventually someone would hire me, I was told. I had a few dollars left over, bought a car for four hundred fifty bucks, and something to eat. I filled the gas tank, began driving, and hit every operator I could find. Eventually I got two flat tires in a small town in Kansas, ran out of gas and had a choice; buy alittle more gas or get something to eat. The operator in that town hired me. I was the only one hired out of all the students to come through while I was there. Job placement, my ass.

That wasn't ATP flight school; it was an agricultural (crop dusting) school (long gone, proprietor dead). It does illustrate, however, the difference between what may be offered, and what may be received. I will add that the six months at that school were not a pleasant experience, and are fodder for their own book.

If you're hearing negative things about ATP (et al), are you hoping that a query to a forum like this will dispel that negative reputation, and justify going to the school? I'm only asking because as a teen, that's what I did. In my case, I let a fortune cookie rule the day. I suggest a more aggressive, proactive approach. Talk to the graduates. Go to the school and check it out.

Down the line, no one cares mch where you got your basic pilot certification. They do care if you can fly, and that's on you: skill and proficiency. But the brand where you got your flight training isn't particularly noteworthy, unless it was military training (widely vetted, recognized). Expensive training doesn't add any more weight to the resume. What will propel you forward is a place that's busy, that will hire you to keep instructing, then an industry cycle that offers hiring opportunities. That cycle just ended. It will come around again, though almost certainly nothing like just happened over the last year and a half, or two years. The industry runs in cycles, sometimes called waves, with hiring on one side, and no hiring and furloughs, on the other. Your career becomes a bit like a surfer, waiting for his set; timing plays a big role.

There are no heroes. Most of us are closer to zeros. Some are just paid a little better than others.

VacancyBid

No, don't go to ATP. You're paying for a lot of advertising.

Go to someplace like http://www.stcharlesflyingservice.com/ and play zero to hero for 1/2 the cost of ATP