ATP Flight School announced it is expanding its training fleet with the addition of 61 new aircraft in 2025, according to a press release on Tuesday.
“New” in combination with a Cessna 172 or Piper Seminole sure sounds like an oxymoron. Do these aircraft include a BRS parachute recovery system or air conditioning, two items that ought to be standard on a “new” aircraft in 2025?
A 172 with AC and a BRS added will be one heavy 172! Might as well remove the rear seats.
Just wait until the pilots that get training on the G1000, are faced with an old 6 pack system. They won’t know what hit them.
I suspect it’s easier to go from a 6 pack to the G1000, instead of the other way around.
I got my Commercial in a C172 fifty nine years ago. And here they are still doing their good work as an all around excellent flying machine. True, a bit more expensive now.
Pet peeve of mine: We have got to the point where you are almost getting a type rating for a plane+avionics combo. When I got my IFR it was all 6-pack from C-152s to 737s, there was no problem jumping in a plane you had never flown before.
Now a Garmin 1000 trained pilot might have one hell of a time with a Dynon Skyview setup even in the exact same airplane, let alone flying on steam gauges.
Interesting timing for this article. Just yesterday I saw a new looking 172 with the ATP logo on the tail, taxi by my hangar at KSGR (near Houston). I also noticed the ATP logon on the side of a big hangar that was built by an acquaintance last summer. I wonder if KSGR, which already has an established flight school, is one of their new expansion sites. Considering the cost of all this shiny new hardware, I wonder what the hourly cost of operation will be.
You are absolutely correct. When I was at what was Avantair, pilots who trained in the Piaggio II with the pro-line 21 avionics had much more difficulty transitioning back to the Piaggio I with the older system that mimicked steam gauges. Pilots such as myself who learned with steam gauges had a much easier time transitioning to “glass” cockpit in the Piaggio II.
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