Hi Guy/Gals,
A rare venture for me outside the realms of the CTC threads, but I couldn’t let a debate about my beloved course at Leeds go without my 2 cents.
Admittedly Mr. Horgy the 1st year wasn’t the best run affair, however after quitting after 4 months I think you have very little right to comment on the overall ability of the staff at Leeds to deliver the course. I went through in the second year, which still wasn’t perfect, but many improvements were beginning to shine through. For instance, the addition of a motion simulator and access to both wind tunnels and gas turbines for my final year project were a massive boost. I would also strongly disagree that the lectures were ‘irrelevant’; something that you would have realised had you made it past freshers week!
I’m currently in New Zealand with CTC along with 6 other colleagues from the 2003 Leeds class, who I think would whole heartedly support the view that nearly all the ATPL theory that we are currently learning is simply a case of revision due to the modules taken throughout our second and third years.
You must also realise that the Pilot Studies option will allow you to do a virtually ‘integrated’ PPL for around 2500GBP through Leeds Flying School (don’t get me started) which on its own represents a massive saving! (I know student loans etc etc add up, but aviation in any form is not a bad subject to study if it’s what you really want to get into, and doing it at Leeds is even better due to awesome nightlife, likeminded people and professional atmosphere).
The 7 of us on the Wings course out here represent around a 60/70% pass rate of all those who applied from my year of the Leeds course (compared to an (inter)national average of around 5% at most) so we must be doing something right! (and please don’t for a minute think that I believe that getting onto CTC is the be all and end all of getting into the industry, but its is certainly one of the better options!)
At the end of the day it is, as Lovezzin says, a choice between 2 totally different courses, although I would heavily dispute the fact that my degree was a ‘doss’!! Aviation Tech is a BSc and Aero Eng is a BEng, you can draw your own conclusions as to required intelligence and workload from that!
I could go on, however if anyone genuinely wants an insight into the Leeds course or CTC (excluding the ‘can you please write my application/what should I say if they ask me this/how do I practise for this/can you tie my shoes before I go to stage 2’ questions) then please feel free to PM me.
Pre3