Mindless arguments,
I think a few underlying points of my post went a little unnoticed, to summarise my lengthy post, I believe the question at hand, "which is better", should have been re-worded to 'please list the pros and cons' a few people have touched on that, but most of this has been the usual high school style 'Yeah well our school football team is better than yours because of this...' which to anyone reading this trying to dig some useful info out of it is completely useless, now im no philosopher, nor am I a psychologist, but 2 things strike me from the perspective of a potential applicant to either CTC or OAT
1) it wouldnt be my preference or be particularly beneficial to see 2 companies's cadets slagging eachother off, I would want to know hard facts, based on experience from cadets, I wouldnt want to be a spectator, sitting on the sidelines with 60 grand in my hand waiting to throw it at the winner of a petty argument, and...
2) it would make me a little concerned to see cadets from some very reputable companies engaging in this 'mindless arguing'
is there a reason behind this arguing people?? I'm not taking the father-figure role or trying to pretend I am 'wiser' than anyone or anything, I just know that I didnt even know about PPrune when I was going through applications to CTC and I would have seen it as a valuable resourse on which to base decisions and guide me into my career. The general summary of this discussion seems to be 'were the best and lets prove it!!'
It could be said that people at OAT are happy there enough to defend it to the last, likewise with people at CTC, another way to look at it would be to say that cadets from both companies want to reassure themselves that they made the right company decision and shed any thoughts of 'the grass is greener on the other side'.
The truth is people, we cant prove anything, I bet no-one here has been on both courses and therefore has no basis for comparison, I dont know what OAT is like, from what I can tell they are a reputable training organisation, and as for their general goal of getting people to become airline pilots, they must be doing something right otherwise they would have probably folded before now, as would have CTC.
I believe the choice of company depends many things, but for anyone basing a life changing decision on what they read here, please FOR GOD SAKE dont just go for the company whose cadets have 'wittier smart-alec comments' than the other! Its insanity!
Cadets in New Zealand, Arizona, Jerez or wherever have a valuable experience that can be offered as help, or not, but for any of this to be useful, we need to grow up and accept that each company has pros and cons. Simple as.
Be nice people!!!
(ps. sorry it didnt turn out to be much of a "summary")