Which Ground school ?
Hi All,
So after passing my PPL skills test last week after many delays I can finally look ahead to starting my ATPLs. If possible I'd just like peoples opinions / personal experiences when choosing a school. I've considered and looked into the following options:
FTE Jerez both distance learning and Residential
Bartolini using BGS Distance learning
Bristol Ground School
Oxford both residential and distance learning
L3 Residential full time
FTA Global residential full time
CATS distance learning
I've weighed up the pro's and con's I can think of for each school including rough estimated cost all in and timeframes etc, FTE was in the frame however given its a full time course they're seems to be an awful lot of downtime / self study which I'm not sure I could justify the extra cost for. I didn't like the feel of Oxford and L3 is out of the equation given its over 3x more expensive and I'm fortunate to have friends / colleagues who have been there who have let me borrow notes. FTA seem like a good set up however it would be more cost effective to go to Jerez if a full time course was the option which leaves the distance learning options. CATS is cheaper however BGS seems to be the tried and tested method which leaves me with two solid options. Bristol or Bartolini who use Bristol material. My original plan was to go via Bartolini, cost being one reason and out of the UK another however the only thing I'm a little unsure of with them is the 5 months of self study before attending the two week ground school and then onto the exams, presumably and please correct me if im wrong this would mean learning all of the subjects to most likely forget a good chunk of the subjects you initially study before heading over to Lodz as opposed to Bristol where you have the revision week at the end of each module plus the accelerator days.
It's worth mentioning i'll be working as Cabin Crew again until October / November at least so taking more than 5 concurrent days annual leave from May - early September isn't permitted. Which kind of throws a spanner in the works for Bristol. If Bartolini ends up being the best option to fit my circumstances I plan to study from when my licence comes back and head over for the ground school in September before most likely staying in Poland for a month to finish the rest of the exams into October.
Thanks in advance,
B