When I Started Flying Pt.2

Alright for those of you guys closely watching, yes, I am behind. As a full-time pilot flying out on the line there will be times I won’t be able to get all these episodes out on time. Thursday I was on a trip that really had us flying most of the day. Then when I finally landed I had just enough time to go eat. Because the next day we had an early departure. In today’s episode of the JUMPSEAT, we will pick up from where last week’s left off, if you haven’t read part 1, go check it out! Part 2 of How I started Flying. I’ll explain how I earned my Airline Transport Pilot License (ATP) in a Cessna 172. At this point, I had gone through the following rating. Private, Instrument, Commercial both single and multi-engine. CFI, CFII, and finally MEI. During this time, it happens to be during COVID. Back at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. When all of the aviation industry was on hold. Pilots were still furloughed, and no companies were hiring. At least not yet…During this time I was still instructing and building hours.

Since I was building hours at the rate I was, I realized my total time was close to meeting ATP minimums. For those of you that are not familiar with the hours required. To qualify for an ATP, you must have 1,500 hours of flight time. 500 hours of cross-country time. (Which means a straight-line distance of more than 50NM). And last 75 hours of instrument time. I met the total time requirement and night and instrument. But the one that took the longest was the 500 hours of cross-country time. After lots of research and reading. Turns out not many pilots get a single-engine ATP. Probably one of the least sought ratings out there. At this point, I had a really good relationship with the examiners that our school frequently used. After speaking with them out of the four we used only one could administer a single engine ATP. That’s when I confirmed I was going to do it. Probably the most challenging part about this was building the motivation to complete the written exam. I had no desire to finish that. During this time, it was just hard to find any motivation to go further in my career because the industry was at a standstill. Once I completed the written test, I asked a friend of mine that was also an instructor to go fly with me. Just make sure I still remember how to fly a few approaches. Once that was out the way I was ready for the test. So to recap, the reason I was able to complete an ATP check ride in a 172 was that the aircraft still fell under category and class. Now some of you may be asking why I didn’t just do the multi ATP. The ATP Multi is a different beast. It’s different due to an accident that changed the industry. The Colgan Air Flight 3407. 59 people lost their lives, and it was an accident well worth looking into. I am a firm believer we can learn from other people’s mistakes. Due to that accident, the 1500hr requirement was enforced and the CTP class along with a few other regulations by the FAA. The requirements for the single-engine ATP were different and optionable. That is why I chose to get it done. Still to this day I believe it was a great decision. If you have any questions about anything you read today send me an email at thepilotlifepodcast@gmail.com.