For those who of you who have had the misfortune to sit through one of my fireside chats at the Flight Training Exhibitions, the advice given above by Alex Whittingham will come as no surprise.
Payment by credit card is a MUST for those able to do it, even if it does p**s the training organisation off. Credit card commission is a big drain on profitability (but let's not get into that one) and of course the credit card companies are very slow at pointing out this little heard of aspect of english law known as vicarious liability.
Payments of large amounts of cash up front is also a big big no no.
You've heard it from Alex Whittingham, you've heard it from Clive Hughes, now you've heard it from Malcolm Dean
DON'T DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In reply to the point of the post, many of you will know that we at Multiflight have for the past 12 months recommended BGS for distance learning. This is not based on cosy commercial relationships with divvying up of huge sums of money. It is simply a recognition of the fact that the work put in by Alex and his colleagues has resulted in probably THE most comprehensive set of study material one could wish to obtain. There is absolutely no point in a training provider like ourselves going to incredible expense to design and produce material like that available only to then have to compete with the BGS for business. It is much simpler and effective to investigat the options available and then make the appropriate recommendation, which is exactly what we do.
I am sad to say of the three sets of notes that I looked at BGS are the only ones still on the market!
On the financial front, I am sure that the addition of "Oliver David" to the Whittingham clan will curtail the retail therapy and make BGS even more secure !!
Malcolm Dean
Head of Training
Multiflight
p.s. Do I have the honour of first mention of Captain "Ollie" on the esteemed pages of pprune
[ 22 August 2001: Message edited by: MALCOLM_DEAN ]