MILITARY PILOTS: This place comes advertised as a very "military friendly", cheap, 2- day ATP course. However, I would highly recommend spending the little bit of extra money to go to a better organized program. Please feel free to message me with specific questions.
Upon scheduling, you will receive 50 jumbled pages (in 8 separate documents) including everything from the Beech Duchess wing area in sq.ft. to out-of-date reviews from previous military pilots (2014/2015).
The first problem with this layout, is nowhere in the documents does it clearly state what you absolutely need to have memorized before showing up on your first day.
That being said, a fellow C-17 pilot and I drove 8 hours for our first day of ground instruction, answered about 75% of the systems knowledge correctly (all the big-boy Aviation topics were discussed no problem), and after 45 minutes we were told we wouldn't be continuing the training at that time. Expect the first day knowledge discussion to be more of a "3 strikes & you're out" evaluation.
Having given the chance, we could have easily taken a lunch break and come back reciting every fact they asked about the Beech Duchess. And without a doubt, we could have mastered the "need to know" information that night before showing up for the checkride the next day.
The outdated reviews make it a point to tell you that Downtown Aviation understands military pilots have probably never flown the Beech Duchess light twin before, but they understand the high level of competency in military pilots - false.
They were unwilling to work with us for scheduling the following few days and insisted we would have to drive 8hrs home and come back another time.
As we packed up to leave, the instructor stated he would typically need to charge us for 9hrs of his time EACH (that's 18 hours of instruction fees for 1 hour of his actual time), but agreed on 9 hrs pay total for the two of us. We understand you had the time "blocked out" in your schedule, but if we are expected to pay for that time we expect you to use it for instruction - not just telling us better luck next time and cutting us short.
Another instructor in the club passed through where we were having our ground discussion, and felt it necessary to make it known that myself and the other military pilot were an "embarrassment to the profession" - this place is unbelievable. DO NOT waste your time or your money read more