As a lot of people here, I monitor PPRUNE on a regular basis and find it very helpful in the world of a wannabee.
I have noticed that from time to time, people post threads asking the question 'what school should I go to, should it be OATS, Cabair, etc etc'? It would appear that a lot of individuals are automatically attracted to the more prestigious schools like OATS and Cabair, and seem to have little consideration for some of the smaller outfits, which is understandable, however I do have a question.
Since being involved with GA aviation since 1995 and hoping, like the rest of you to be sitting in the sharp end of a jet one day, my impression of the CAA as a regulatory body is that it enforces tight rules and regulations. Now, getting back to that question, if a flying school, whether it be OATS, or Joe Bloggs Aviation that has a CAA approval to conduct professional pilot courses surely they all have to meet certain standards, and
theorectically both students from OATS and JBA respectively should be as competent as one another? In the real world I know this is not the case due to a number of factors, however, would you think the airlines will judge a student with respect to where he/she sought their training?
Trying to draw conclusions myself, I would only think that places like OATS would tell the prospective student that they have the expertise in training and know what the airlines are looking for, as opposed to JBA who is just following a CAA syllabus to pass a test, and thats where the 6000 quid difference in price comes into play
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Any opinions on this greatly received, thanks for listening
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