Am too old to plan to use an ATP in Europe but it may be useful if I ever re located and was flying N reg.
Still waiting for my LoV – the FAA helpfully guided me to send £44 to the CAA to help issue this.
25 full stop PIC landings at night count towards an hour of night flight. ie if you make one full stop night circuit, those ten minutes count as an hour, up to a limit of 25.
The Letter of Verification came through with one week to spare, and am currently at Chicago Du Page. The written went well and you need to cram a fair bit of FAR regs, then the focus is on mass and balance, performance/planning, CRM, radio nav, and weather. They use different aircraft for planning purposes, but questions are generic – but it does mean you get thrown a wider range of performance charts. My test had a 747, 727 and DC-9. While only 80 questions, the test takes close on two out of the three hours allocated.
On the practical you need to fly a wider range of approaches, including a partial panel non precision. You also perform the stalling recoveries and steep turns under the hood. The practical is over two hours in the air, plus two hours with the DPE on the ground.
They are more conservative on asymmetric, and while you get regular one engine out drills, you get both engines back for go arounds, although you are required to demonstrate an asymmetric to land.
The local DPE is Leslie Henninger and she has two good videos on prepping for the test on you tube – will post the links. The Multi component brief is very good, the IR brief is more focused on interpreting the FARs and how they apply to approach plates.
The link for the Multi
..and the link for the IR
The check ride went smoothly and the ATP instructor (who only had got his PPL two years ago and had 1200 hours total), did an excellent job of de bugging this old f**t and getting me up to test standard. I had unlimited access to the SIM, and four flights, all of around two hours, with the last being a mock, but not a 170A as you self certify you are ready.
The examiner was Leslie Henninger and she was excellent. The oral consisted mainly of scenario based questions which led into either interpretation of the FARs, principles of flight/performance or systems.
The practical is a stamina exercise as you are under the hood for two and a half hours in airways going to three airports. Profile was one RV ILS, followed by an asymmetric ILS to standard hold – off then to general handling which includes steep turns under the hood, emergency descents under the hood, unusual attitudes partial panel, engine shut down and fault finding in the cruise (full feathering with air start), then to non precision asymmetric VOR with circling to land. At this airport you carry out an aborted take off, then an EFATO with asymmetric to land. Last leg was a straightforward GPS approach back to the departure airport. You are expected to be +/- 100 feet, and are allowed only quarter deflection throughout, plus using the checklist physically to confirm memory items.
I certainly feel it was worth it as it was good, useful scenario based training which was much more focused on real emergency skills than our exercises in NDB gold plating. The emergency descent for example is scenario based, the examiner will advise a problem and you need to decide whether to fault find, emergency descent or shut down.
A bit too intense for a bus man’s holiday, but worthwhile. The Seminole was occasionally not synching, my bad but had a sticky friction lock, when I apologised she said not to worry she had examined a vet who claimed they always flew with the props un synched in Viet Nam to confuse the enemy.
Well done Robert 
It’s interesting to note that female examiners are usually so much nicer than the male ones. (I can think of only two exceptions, both well known).
The other highly regarded female DPE is Janeen Kochan who used to do UK checkrides a few years ago but like all the other visiting DPEs was eventually blocked.
Thanks Peter. I would add the oral had a fairly long discussion on icing. The ATP instructor invested a lot of time in prepping me for the oral, all unpaid.
ATP basically takes zeroes to heroes and while they earn minimum wage, I estimate less than UK PPL instructors for conducting advanced training, they all move onto the airlines at 1,500 hours. They also wash people out if they are not making the grade.
I think I prefer this system for airline pilots than our current frozen embryo, pay to play, MPL system in Europe.
Hi, I just got my CBIR added to my easa ppl based on my FAA experience and of cause a skill test.
As I have done the FAA ATP written last year at Flight Safety I have heard that I can have the HPA-limitations on the CBIR removed – are there anybody who can confirm that or have experience with it?
cheers FD
I added a SE to my Multi ATP and was not requested to get a replacement knowledge test certificate. Your knowledge test is a matter of record with the folk in Oklahoma.
By 2019 you will need formal upset recovery training as well, which arguably is a few years too late.
Fuel cost for 50 hrs in a $40K Apache would be under $4K… Buy one to resell or use somebody else’s, there are a lot of them that need to be flown.
Well, it has already had the desired effect. Regionals could get away with paying ludicrous $20K a year back in the ‘good’ old days, now I just read that that’s more than doubled. They simply can’t get pilots to fill the regional planes. And schools are really struggling to keep their seasoned CFI’s with ATPs. Another older CFI on a forum (in his mid 50’s) just got a job as a right seater in a CRJ. So they’re desperate.
Listen, I hate regulation and protectionism, but this is a good thing for the pilot industry. This will eliminate all the scams of having to pay for flying, pay for type ratings etc that had spread like a cancer. I think Europe should follow in the same footsteps, but I do realize it’s harder to get the hours there with less opportunities. But if the airlines don’t get clogged up by 250hr applicants, there also will be opportunities for these to do other things. Today, they kind of expect to get into the airlines from the get go, whereas if they knew that was not a possibility, they would seek other opportunities, become FI’s, tow banners, go to Maun, fly small experimentals etc.
