ATPL course ground study-what makes the price differences?

[Tante Ju]

Dear UK pilots,
I am a German PPL holder and intend to do an ATPL long distance course with the required brush up classes.
As English is aviation language it is worth doing the course in the UK, in view of the weak pound even more. Whilst I have to pay 3800 Pound (4000 Euro) in Germany I found following prices last week for UK schools on the internet:
GTS Bournemouth: 1850 GBP
Oxford AA: 2300 GBP
AFT Coventry: 2095 GBP
Cranfield: 1599 GBP (online 999 GBP)
Bristol Ground school: 2100 GBP
Did I miss a school?

My questions:
What explains the price differences? In Germany prices are pretty the same between different schools.
As I need to take holidays I am looking for a school with only 3 weeks brush up courses, at the moment only Coventry and Cranfield if I am right. Especially Cranfields price is very attractive. Has anyone recent experiences with them? Thank you for your advices.

[laverda62]

Hi Tante Ju

I recently completed my ATPL's with Cranfield CAT's, I also had 2 work jobs at the same time so had to consider what time I had available for Ground School sessions.

The reason I chose CAT's was that you can choose the subject sequence you study, sit exams when you want, flexible ground school dates og max 1 week per phase and also the cost being affordable. CAT's will not spoon feed their students so you need to be prepared to use your own intiative to get you through the study material and tests.

There were times when I was struggling with understanding some of the material e.g GNAV and POF but found that the instructors such as Stuart Smith and Mike Burton were helpful and also when I was a little worried about my performance they gave advise and motivational assistance.

There were also students from other parts of Europe using CAT's whom I met at ground school e.g. Holland, Ukraine, Estonia etc.

Finally for GBP £999 was good value and at the end of the day I passed all 14 marks average 85%+ so can only recommend CAT's.

[mad_jock]

To be honest these days there is probably not much between them all. In the first years of JAR they was an advantage to going to OAT or Bristol because they had put in so much work early on. Both sets of notes were miles ahead of anyone else's.
Also the amount of feedback questions was huge compared to the other schools. Some of the exams question banks were suspect to say the least, my sitting of instruments I got 80% and was pretty shocked at that until the school lecturer informed me I was one of 4 that sitting that passed it. These days averages of over 95% are quite common.

These days its quite mature and with you being able to purchase feedback online the school choice is not so critical.
Although the prices are different there really isn't that much in them that isn't covered from having to get to the school for the brush up courses. At the time I was living in Germany so OAT worked out cheaper because of flights and train fares. They also used to get there notes printed by Jepps in Germany so I got free P&P when they were sent to me.

I maybe wrong in this but I suspect that Cranfield takes advantage of some VAT laws so the reason why they are alot cheaper than the others is because of there education status they don't charge you 17.5% vat.

You are now going to get a heap of posts from people who have been to each school saying they are great. The only notes I have seen are OAT and Bristol's both of which are high quality and do the job I suspect these days the others are as well.

[Tante Ju]

Thanks for your reply. How does the online course works? Do you have to be permanently online or can you download/print material? How many hours per week did you spent for how many month?
Thanks, kind regards.

[UAV689]

Hi

with the CATS online course you log in via their homepage and have access to the course notes, qbank, lecture slides, mock exam papers, + loads more. You do have to stay logged in/online to view them. It is a very good course, and good school for the price. I also supplemented my studies by buying a second hand set of oxford notes, sometimes it helps to have a different view point on bits you are stuck on. There is a demo section you can study the full HPL module for free online, give it a go and see how it works for you.

Go with CATS, save some money, and it will probably allow you to be more flexiable in the order you sit modules etc. Especially as you only need to take 2 consectutive weeks off for gs and exams as apposed to 3 weeks at other schools which is unrealistic to get 3 weeks in a row of work for most people.

[Jambo999]

Just to add my two pennies worth.

Make sure you pay for any training on your credit card. It has been suggested that one or more of the said training providers may be going belly-up. Of course, this may not be true but it might be worth checking the liquidity of prospective training providers. Problem is I don't know how you can do those checks! Any ideas?

J.

[PA28Viking]

I did ATPL at CATS as well (online) based the very positive reviews I found in here. I was lucky to get in contact with a guy how lent me the Jeppesen ATPL guides, and it was good to 1) have an alternative source, and 2) have it in print. I also printed most of the CATS study guide from the internet, and that was tedious and would have been expensive if I should have paid myself (thanks to my employer).

You get what you pay for, and I must say I felt rather left to my self. Not ones did CATS initiate any dialog with me in any shape or form. On the other hand, if I had a question, I would often get an answer within hours or even minutes, also late at night.
When I finish my last exam, I asked if they issued (and if I would need) a course completion certificate. The answer was no (and no), and that was the last contact I had with them. Their PR before, under and after the cause is lacking.

The brush-up weeks I found not very effectively planed and conducted. Stuart and Mike are very good teachers, but when they were busy elsewhere some newly trained ATPL students came and made a fool of them self trying to explain stuff. Most of the time was used doing test papers and debriefing them. Long breaks and early finishing times due to bad scheduling.

I hear that they are moving to new premises and that can only be an improvement. The shed they have at Cranfield is not a nice building.

All in all I do not regret going to CATS. It did the job, and it was cheep. You must realise that the ATPL is very mush up to your own work ethics and with distance learning even more so. You get the help you ask for but you have to ask.

With regard to the price difference, in the larger scheme of ATPL/CPL/MEP/IR it doesn’t make a lot of difference. Choose the school you think is right for you regarding timing, geography, quality etc.

The VIKING

[Whirlygig]

Problem is I don't know how you can do those checks! Any ideas?
Yes (http://tinyurl.com/ygddcev)

You'll have to pay for it.

Cheers

Whirls

[122.85]

I am currently at CATS and have my MOD 2 exams next week. I can understand PA28 Vikings views but for me the key thing is that regardless of who you choose the end result is up to you. I have no regrets using CATS and have found them to be both friendly and very helpful. the key for me is the flexibility I get with them is more than have seen from other providers and that suits me better at the present time.

I was at the brush up last week and have no worries about the financial state of company, the new offices look great.

Whoever you choose I wish you the best of luck.

[Golf--Lima--Papa]

I'm stuck between Bristol and CATS, I've yet to hear a bad word said about BS and everyone seems to get really high marks. On the other hand I prefer the way CATS split it in 3 stages.

Then you have the money issue, CATS being much cheaper. At the moment I'm thinking of going for CATS online, and picking up some second hand notes from Jepp, Oxford or Bristol and also signing up for the BS question bank.

However, I'm not signing up until the start of december so I might change my mind :cool:

[UAV689]

CATS all the way!! Well i have used a combination of CATS, bristol qbank and some old oxford notes and so far (9 out of 14) i have managed over 95% pass mark.

Save the money and spend it on the flying.