CFwake, so what you're saying is that Oxford make you fly in a more "regimented" manner. That certainly seems to be the case, however Id consider filling out a flight plan and doing a mass and balance sheet before every flight a bit pedantic to be honest. Once youve done them a couple of times you know how to do them and I dont really see what it teaches you. Ok, thorough planing is vital to conducting a safe flight, but flight plans do not need to be filed for VFR flights, and it is common knowedge that a warrior with full tanks and two averagely sized people on board will not be out of mass and balance limits.
There seems to be a myth in some quarters of the flying world that being an airline pilot involves some kind of millitary style, super regimented attutide and appearance, which I think comes from the influence of the millitary pilots which come across from the RAF, to either work in Airlines or instruct at places like OAT. In fact, it does sound like Oxford has the feel of a millitary academy, am I right? A lot of millitary instructors, uniforms and epaulets, "bollockings" for being late? Such things may be appropriate in the RAF, but in my opinion, not in a civilian flying school.
I remember reading during my MCC course that when the concept of CRM was first introduced, one of its primary aims was to overcome certain aspects of the attitudes of a lot of ex millitary pilots, which had been blamed for a number of serious acidents. Things like:
- too much respect for rank, resulting in too steep a command gradient;
- the maverick, single minded attitudes of captains which had come from single pilot fast jets;
- a lack of respect for "inferior" first officers;
were blames for a number of accidents where, had the crew worked as a team, the accident would have been easily avoided.
In relailty, being a pilot is a civillian job like any other. If you turn up on time, fit to fly, not looking like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards and do the job properly, then you're doing the right thing. It does not take Oxford style millitary regimentation to learn such an approach.
I have no beef against any of the Oxford students, however I am of the opinion that OAA exploit their sudents' career aspirations by feeding them a load of bull**** to make themselves rich. The exploitation of wannabees by FTOs and Airlines dusgusts me to be honest.
It has been said on here that from the statistics, 87% of OAA students get jobs. Ok that may be true, but one of my original points was that 40% of these people had gone/ will go to Ryan Air. This is by far the majority. If I had gone to oxford, and all I managed to get at the end of it was a job with Ryan Air, then I would feel very pissed off indeed!
One other thing, as part of the integrated course, how much solo time do you actually get? I mean real solo time, when you're the only one in the AC, not "supervised solo" or whatever else they might call it.