Daily schedules

Roxanne Rookie Florida soon

Could someone tell me what the daily schedules are like these days at the academy? For example, around what times are the breaks and how long are they? What time do they usaully take lunch on a day shift?
Thanks!

Shide Newcomer

Expect lunch around 11 on day shifts, around 6 on night shifts. As for breaks, they come whenever the instructor feels like it. Supposed to be 10 min. every hr. but it usually doesn't work out that way.

enickerson Rookie

My instructor lets us go to lunch at about 1045 to get ahead of the lunch rush. By about 1105 it is fairly full and hard to find a seat. Our breaks are scattered, if he sees steam coming out of our ears, then we get a break. Sometimes its every hour, sometimes its every 40 minutes and they last anywhere from 5 mins to 20 minutes depending on where they are at in the lesson plan.

n0b0dy100 Newcomer Islip NY

Some instructors give more breaks than others (you'll work with different instructors at different times). Usually you finish an end of lesson test and take a break.

Agent_Scarn Newcomer Salt Lake City

Morning shift goes from 7:00-3:30 and evening shift goes from 3:30 to 12:00. You will usually get a 35-40 minute lunch break at or around 11:00 for morning and at or around 6:00-6:30 in the evening. Our instructor usually gives us 10-15 minutes of break almost every hour. You really do get A LOT of breaks if you're used to working a standard salary job. For the morning you should generally plan on being to the facility by around 6:30 a.m. The front gate gets very busy the closer you get to 7:00 and they are very very strict about punctuality in this business.

Word of advice when you get here, form study groups. The people that try to do it on their own generally have a lower success rate (referring to the Pubnat people). Most likely there will be some pilots in your class, it would be very smart to grab 1 or 2 of them so when you're studying they can explain things in a different way that maybe you can understand better. The material isn't hard even for non aviation people, but the tests throw in some tricky questions and if you don't pay attention you will be kicking yourself later for missing simple questions. You will have to get over a 90% on the tests so missing 4 out of 30 will mean a fail. It's not hard as long as you put in a decent effort.

Good Luck!!!

ColtsATC Trusted Contributor Indy

Study groups are great.

Oh, and just cuz they are pilots, doesn't mean they are good at ATC. They have a jump on phraseology, and that's about it. We have 3 pilots in my class. 1 is doing very well (he's a VERY intelligent guy, and the closest to me in ATC ability up to this point), 1 is doing good, and the other is struggling.

Study hard and show a desire to learn and excel in this career field and it will payoff greatly.

Shyu Senior Member www.stuckmic.com

my first few blogs has pretty descriptive days on there but that's about it lol

SRQ Senior Member Sarasota/Indianapolis

I just hope I have a warm enough winter jacket for going up North to OKC.

Dale Senior Member Uniondale, Indiana

A light jacket is sufficient most of the time. If you need to get something heavier, wait till you get to OKC and visit a thrift shop. You can usually find a decent used coat for under $10 to keep you warm the 5 or 6 times you really need the extra insulation. Then you are not paying $60 - $70 for a coat you won't use when you go where one isn't needed.

SRQ Senior Member Sarasota/Indianapolis

Thanks, I'm set.