Start saving your pennies. A major but often overlooked hurdle to that airline flying career is embodied in Advisory Circular 61-138. Its 25 pages and three appendices describe the Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program (ATP CTP), which is another gate through which aspiring airline pilots must pass in addition to earning 1,000 to 1,500 hours of flying time. This plan for advanced formal training as a prerequisite to earning the ATP appears to be another result of the Colgan accident and, frankly, seems to be a good idea. But, the execution and costs can be mind-boggling. The FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Committee that developed this program consisted of nine organizations including the Regional Airline Association, the National Business Aircraft Association, the Aviation Accreditation Board International, the Air Line Pilots Association, and AOPA.
The ATP CTP is designed to bridge the knowledge gap between a pilot who holds a commercial pilot certificate and a pilot operating in an air carrier environment. Bridging this gap requires training in essential subject areas described in the AC. Successful completion of the ATP CTP will ensure an ATP applicant receives the baseline knowledge and experience to prepare them for the duties, responsibilities, and challenges of an air carrier environment.
Starting in July 2014, the only route to the ATP certificate is through the ATP CTP. Gone are the days when one could cram for the knowledge test by diving into a Gleim book and prep for the flight test in a Piper Seminole. According to the AC, the ATP CTP is a prerequisite for the FAA’s highest certificate and includes at least 30 hours of ground training. The training program will impart conceptual knowledge through academics and consolidate that knowledge through training in a flight simulation training device (FSTD).
The list of required academics for the ground training is daunting: eight hours of aerodynamics; two hours of meteorology; 14 hours of air carrier operations; and six hours of leadership/professional development, crew resource management, and safety culture.
Who develops and provides the training? Part 121, 135, 141, or 142 certificate holders. The ATP CTP cannot be a product developed by the neighborhood FBO or even a name-brand flight academy unless it is an FAA-approved Part 141 flight school. The agency’s complex approval process involves initial review by the company’s FAA Principal Operations Inspector, the Inspector’s Region, and then FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Even if a Part 141 aviation college or university flight program crafts the ATP CTP for delivery of the academics, there is the question of instructor qualifications. From the AC: “… all instructors of the ATP CTP must hold an ATP certificate with an airplane category multiengine class rating and have at least two years of air carrier experience.” So, a Ph.D. teaching aviation courses on campus without any airline background is disqualified unless he or she is under the supervision of someone who has the background. Simulator instructors must be type-rated in the aircraft. These requirements could be a boon to retired airline pilots, who could impart their knowledge and experience on campus.
The deal breaker for most interested institutions is this from the AC: “As stated in 61.156(b), the ATP CTP must include at least 10 hours of training in an FSTD, qualified under 14 CFR part 60. [The devices must be representative of an aircraft with at least 40,000 lbs. maximum takeoff weight.] Of the 10 required hours, at least six hours of training must be completed in a full flight simulator (FFS), Level C or higher. Up to four hours of training may be accomplished in a Level 4 or higher FTD.”
Although well-intentioned, this idea poses so many questions.
How many college and university flight programs have access to such high quality FSTDs? This requirement will most likely result in partnerships between the schools and airline training centers, or with companies such as Boeing, Airbus, or FlightSafety. But do these companies have the capacity to administer simulator training to two students at a time when the market demand can tally hundreds if not thousands of potential ATP students?
What will profit-oriented training enterprises charge for the simulator time? Then, there’s travel and lodging costs to consider.
Which of the FAA-certificated organizations have the manpower, hardware, and motivation to develop and deliver the ATP CTP, and at what cost?
If not a collegian enrolled in a campus-based ATP CTP, where can that aviator go for the training? The training from a commercial provider is sure to be pricey.
An idea floating through the industry at this early stage is this: Perhaps regional airlines, as part of bridge programs being created with colleges and universities, may be inclined to recruit top-notch students and instructors and enroll then in an airline-based ATP CTP prior to initial new-hire training for that carrier.
In case the impact of this paradigm has not registered, completion of the ATP CTP is required to take the ATP knowledge test. One would think that successful completion of the FAA-approved ATP CTP would satisfy the knowledge test requirement, but it does not.
Eventually, the answers will come to the hard questions. But, at first blush, this idea may cause many young potential airline pilots to take up dentistry, unless someone else picks up the tab.
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