I’ve decided that I’m going to get my Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate in the next few months. \u00a0I almost meet the full ATP requirements, and am only lacking the 50 hours of multi-engine time (I have 40 hours) and don’t have 500 cross country time (I have 330 hours). \u00a0The FAA changed the requirements in 2013 to issue a restricted ATP with only 200 hours of cross country time. \u00a0Additionally, after July of 2014, the FAA is further changing the requirements for the ATP written.<\/p>\n
I had always planned on getting my ATP down the road, but the 500 hours of cross country killed it for me (buying a block of 170 hours is killer on the wallet).<\/p>\n
Due to the new changes, there were a few options for me to complete my goal of earning my ATP:
\n1) Skip it. \u00a0The ATP is a vanity item and realistically doesn’t give me any additional privileges. \u00a0I have multi-commercial and I don’t plan to work for the airlines. \u00a0If I ever do want my ATP down the road, I can go out and buy it (expected cost would be ~20k).
\n2) Train up and work for a year or two and have them pay for my ATP checkride. \u00a0After some thought, I really like making decent money and 1st year airline pay is brutal.
\n3) Get my ATP and purchase 170 hours of cross country time. \u00a0I would love to do this, but my vanity is just not worth $20k that it would take to buy the cross country time and multi time to finish all the requirements of a full ATP.
\n4) Get the restricted ATP. \u00a0I eventually settled on this option as being the most cost efficient and still meeting my ego needs. \u00a0Yes, it’ll be expensive because I haven’t flown in over 3 years and will be very rusty, but I can swing it if I live small for a while.<\/p>\n
I’ve started studying for the ATP written, and when I passed the written in 2007 it seemed easy. \u00a0Now even simple questions I should know are hard (such as Vs0 vs Vs1). \u00a0I’ve got several months to put into the test and I’ve always been good at the FAA written tests so it should go well. \u00a0At the moment, I’m using breaks and lunch at work to study up and as I get closer I’ll be studying ~1-2 hours a night at home too.<\/p>\n
I had to find my logbooks, and it took me a good day of searching to find it. \u00a0Once I found it, it would appear that while I documented the flights, I wasn’t as dedicated to totaling up my flight time. \u00a0My project at home for the moment is totaling up my fight times. \u00a0Sadly, I also lost my flight times in logbook pro due to a hard drive failure about two years ago. \u00a0I likely have a backup on my old desktop or my flash drive, but I’m not entirely sure where the flash drive is and the old desktop is about 1000 miles away at my parent’s house.<\/p>\n
Another technical point is I need to renew my medical this year. \u00a0I hold a 1st class medical that is good for 3rd class privileges until mid-2014 (I still need to find my medical). \u00a0No reason spending all this money to find out that I can’t fly anymore because I can’t have a medical.<\/p>\n
On the flying front, I’m going to hold off until I get the written passed and medical renewed. \u00a0I think the best option that I’ve found is that Glendale Flyers offers a multi-engine ATP fixed price ATP. \u00a0I’ll likely add in a 10 hour block of multi time + instructor time on top of that to build the required 50 multi hours.<\/p>\n
So look forward to more flying posts as I journey along the path to my ATP!<\/p>\n