Need Direction

[LeviL-ID-609]

Good morning! My name is Levi.

I'm 21 and currently hold only my private so far, with about 115 hours in a little '66 Cessna 150. I'm really interested in taking the fast track class that I saw here on the website, but had some questions. First of all, I've heard that you can't actually get an ATP license unless you're 23... Is this true?

What can you tell me about the schedule for the fast track?

Lastly, I'm not sure that I want to fly for one of the larger airlines. Managing the FBO at my local airport for a few months (KSZT) I met and talked to a lot of corporate jet pilots that would fly in mostly in Lear 45's or Challenger 300's. I seem to be a lot more drawn to that kind of thing than to flying many more people in a larger aircraft- that being said, would this school still be a good thing to go through or is there another direction or path I should be taking?

Thanks! Levi

[American Eagle Kevin]

Hello Levi. Welcome to the forum and thanks for participating. You're already on your way since you have your PPL license and a good amount of time under your belt. This experience will always be helpful.

To answer your first question, yes you need to be 23 years old in order to earn your ATP certificate. Don't let this concern you right now though. You don't need an ATP license to get hired with a regional airline or with some corporate flight departments unless your applying for a Captain position. An ATP license is not required to become a First Officer for a regional airline. By the time you are ready to upgrade to a Captain position, you more than likely will be 23 years old or older.

You also need 1500 hours of flight time of which 500 is cross country, 100 of night and 75 of instrument flight time to be elgible for an ATP certificate. Let's just say we have a way to go before we get to that point.

The schedule for the fast track is pretty simple. It will be 90 straight days of training. It will start with your Private Multi-Engine Add-On Certifcate and work you through to your Certified Flight Instructor Ratings. You will finish the program with your Commercial-Multi and Single Engine licenses with an Instrument Rating and your CFI, CFII and CFMEI ratings. The program will consist of 185 hours of flight time of which 165 is Multi-Engine. This experience is invaluable considering all the airlines and corporate flight departments prefer multi-time to single engine time. You will basically eat, sleep and breathe aviation for 90 straight days. This training method is comparable to a regional airline's school which also works at a fast pace. So not only are you earning all your certificates in a short amount of time, you are also training yourself for your next job which more than likely will be at the same pace.

Regardless of what career path you take whether it be with a corporate flight department or with an airline, you are still required to have the same certificates and licenses. I think ATP's training would still work if you choose to go the corporate route.

With corporate aviation you need to make a lot of contacts which it sounds like you're doing right now. Managing that FBO is a great way to meet corporate pilots. You get an invaluable chance to rub elbows with some of these pilots who later on down the road may offer you a job if and when you earn your licenses.

The only other path I could think of would be to maybe go through your own FBO if it has a flight school. This would keep you in the loop with all the corporate business the FBO gets. But you may end up paying a lot more out of pocket and taking a lot more time with this route.

I hope this helps for now. Let me know what I can do to help you out. Ask as many questions as you like, just do me a favor and post each question as a new topic. Thanks!

Kevin