Groundschool

[Keith.Williams.]

PA 28,

If you wish to do a residential ATPL ground school course at Bournemouth you have two schools from which to choose. These are BCFT (which is frequently advertised on this site by Send Clowns) and EPTA. I manage the EPTA ground school and teach a number of subjects there.

Neither of these schools provides overnight accommodation, so there will be no problem with you living with your parents (subject of course to their approval!).

Both BCFT and EPTA are holding open days in the next few weeks (BCFT on 26 April and EPTA on 10 May). These are obviously intended to convince you to come and train with us. The principal problem with attending open days is that you will not be able to visit and compare both schools on the same day.

Personally I would recommend that you contact both schools and arrange to visit both on the same day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. In order to make an objective comparison it might be helpful to make a list of subjects that you wish to investigate. I would suggest the following as a starting point:

Facilities: You should take a good look around, particularly at the classrooms and training aids.

Course notes: This is clearly a difficult one to assess if you have not already seen those of other schools, but you should at least look at the general presentation, layout and amendment states. Each book should include an issue date so you can see how recently they have been updated.

First time pass rates: Do not accept the school's word for this, but insist on seeing the CAA issued statistics. The CAA issue these to all schools every month. The school might argue that they cannot show you them, because they include student names. If so, you should simply invite them to cover up the names when they show you the lists. Ask them to download the lists directly from their e-mail system so you know they have not been doctored.

Ask what happens if you fail any of the exams. Many schools simply charge you extra for further training. This, in my opinion, is totally unreasonable. Having paid once, you should expect to get the training that is necessary to enable you to pass the exams. Some schools wil permit you to sit in on lessons with other courses, but will provide nothing specifically designed for you. This is likely to be of little value unless the course with which you sit is close to the exams. Only one school that I am aware of will provide free retraining in the form of consolidation courses specifically for the small number of students who are taking resits.

Talk to existing students (in private): You can do this during the lunch break or coffee break. Make sure you choose which ones you talk to and ensure you are permitted to do so in private. This is the best way to get an unbiased view. If you attend an open day you might well meet some students, but these will have been selected by the school, so they will probably be the happiest ones.

Ask to sit in on a lesson. You probably wont be up to speed on the subject but you will at least get a feel for how the teaching is actually done. You will also see how the students and instructors get on.

Ask about payment methods and protection schemes. Do not pay large amounts up front and always use a credit card.

Do not visit the toilets (ours are pretty cramped at the moment but we are working on the problem).