PPL/Ground School
Hi all,
I am hoping someone can help me as I am to say the least a little confused! To give you a little bit of background info, I am firstly new to this forum, I graduated university with a first class degree in tourism management and now work in an aircraft charter company as a commercial jet broker. Problem is, all I have ever wanted to be is a pilot and now I am finally in a position where I can afford to save money (aside from the 50k debt I have from uni.....).
Anyway, I have been doing a lot of digging into the possible ways of completing my PPL licence. And because of the sheer amount of digging, I think I have confused myself even more... So I am asking for your opinions either from your own research or experience as I don't think anybody will know better than people who are/have been in my shoes! Main questions I have are:
- Firstly, do I stay in the UK to complete the PPL or do I go to the US. My boss did his PPL over in the US as an intensive course (3 weeks and did all the exams and flying). His advise was to complete ground school here and go to the US and solely focus on flying for a few weeks.
- This leads me onto the next question... Ground schools... which ones are half decent? I am near Goodwood and Farnborough or even Shoreham.. what are your experiences with those/instructors/pass rates etc?
- I work full time and it seems to be impossible to find information on the pattern of study/lectures at those ground schools.. So I guess the question is, is it all done through self study or are there evening classes and are there repeats of the classes as opposed to annual terms? For example, do they just loop the same lessons every week or every month.. eg. NAV lesson every 2 months? I know from a person who holds a PPL that there are study sessions to help you but no ground school seems to show how the taught sessions happen...
- If I stay in the UK and enrol to both flying and ground school, which one is good in the south of UK? I have looked at Biggin Hill (EFG), Goodwood (seems very expensive, even more than Biggin Hill), Shoreham, Stapleford or Farnborough (Blackbushe).... but I would really love some advise on your experiences...
- What is the cost for just ground school and again which one is a good one?
I think that's enough questions for now... I'm sorry if I have bored you to death but I really don't know who else to ask!
Thanks in advance!