CPL Groundschool practice - is it legal?
Hi guys!
I'm not long into all this and am looking around at ground schools to help get me through ATPL hopefully by distance learning, and have come up against another oddity in aviation:
Compulsory Groundschool Attendance (oh yeah, and the huge fee).
My girlfriend has already bought me several of the ground school guides from Oxford (which are brilliant) and I've covered a lot of the main subjects. However I am told that I must attend several weeks of brush-up/detailed learning with their instructors in Oxford before going for the exams. I would have to travel down to the school (if I eventually sign up with them), take five(?) weeks off work (most of my annual holiday, albeit spread out a bit) and part with up to £2000.
I explained this to my girlfriend (more of a moan really), and was surprised when she questioned the legal basis of the practice, particularly under a wider European legal framework (more commercial law).. if I can buy 100% of the (approved) written material from Transair and Pilotwarehouse from three-four of the major groundschools, buy a shed-load of practice papers from them at the same time, why should I then pay a school £2000 for the privilege of marking a few progress tests, and loosing all my holiday etc?
The safety argument is fulfilled by the very tough exams.
It looks like a protectionist practice that has gone unchallenged, I know its JAR Law (and has got some sort of statutory instrument guarding it or something), but why?
Why is there a law to force me to pay one of a dozen schools a lot of money to fulfil my dreams? They don't sit the exams for me. I already have the material evidently adequate for me to pass the exams with.
Has anyone any thoughts on this, what am I paying for and why am I having to pay it (morally or legally)?
Mike