ATPL Distance Learning

[Tim_Q]

Due to the need to maintain gainful employment (I need to pay for all this somehow!) I am looking at taking a modular route and studying for the ATPL exams at home.
I have done a lot of home study in the past and I have plenty of self discipline but I was wondering exactly what I am letting myself in for! :eek:
Any past experiences from those who have taken this path would be greatfully received. I have a couple of UK training establishments in mind that already come highly recommended for distance learning but again any experinces good and bad would be great.
Thanks muchly!....
Tim

[FlyingForFun]

I'm about half way through the distance learning course, so I'm probably in a position to be able to comment.

There is no doubt about it, distance learning is difficult. But if you have to maintain other employment (as you and I do) it's the only choice. Personally, I go to work Monday to Friday, and I usually get home about 7pm. I try to study 2 or 3 evenings a week, generally from about 8pm till 11pm. I also try to study on both Saturday and Sunday, for as much time as I can (I can't usually manage more than 5 or 6 hours a day, even with breaks in the middle - my brain starts to fry after that! And if I manage to fly during the weekend, that reduces my studying time.)

I haven't been working at a constant rate. Since I've started studying, I barely turn the tv on, and my social life has deteriorated, but I do still try to get out from time to time. This means that I can often only work one day on the weekend, or sometimes not at all. I also go out after work from time to time, in which case I can't work that night.

At this rate, it took me roughly 6 months to do the first half of the course. This is followed by a 2-week brush-up, then a week for the exams. So the total length of time for the course is about 13 or 14 months. The system works, though - I passed all 8 of the module 1 exams at the first attempt, and all with good marks.

I'm doing the course with Bristol, by the way, and I highly recommend them. No financial interest in them, except for being a satisfied customer.

Good luck!

FFF
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[Tim_Q]

Thanks FFF. I work Mon to Fri but odd hours which should be an advantage because it frees up some mornings or late afternoons for me mid-week. I'm not as good at studying in the evenings.
Keep up the good work!

[ravenx]

FFF - I assume you did Air Law as one of the module 1 exams. I'm looking through the stuff at the minue - do they really ask you questions on the JAA structure and the date of the chicago convention and stuff like that?

I mean - obviously I can see how those nuggets of information will help you on that wind shear microburst landing event :)

[GonvilleBromhead]

SH,

I've just sat mod 2 exams, having studied with BGS. Agree with FFF, the timescale for me was about the same, around 13 - 14 months from start to end of mod 2 exams (hope to God no retakes are coming my way !!).

Got thru mod 1 exams ok, doing about (on average) 3 hours a night study mainly Mon - Thurs, every now and again weekends.

TV, mid-week social life and sometimes weekend socials all out the window, but I tell you what, it's a lovely feeling getting your life back afterwards, sales of Stella must have gone thru the roof now.

Ravenx, unfortunately you do get asked some noddy questions in Air Law, things like the 5 freedoms are questioned, the different conventions also feature too. In the last exam there were at least a couple of questions worth 2 marks (majority are 1 marks) on which convention deals with what...In our case they were asking about the Rome convention, but 2 marks for those questions ? What a bloody gift !

Learn all your radar seperations, departure and en-route seps and wake turbulance distances. Also the various requirements for ATPL and CPL qualification were tested.

Know the Annexes too, i.e 1-18, and what they relate to.

BGS feedback was spot-on so if you're reading Alex or Baz, cheers.

Hope this helps folks.

cheers,

GB.

[FlyingForFun]

ravenx,

Air Law is in Module 2 at Bristol, so I haven't started it yet. I'm actually due to study chapter 1 next week, as long as I can do everything I want to do this weekend...

But GB's reply matches what all the Module 2 people were saying when I was there. They seemed to think that if you knew your Annexes, you're half way there.

FFF
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[Superfly]

Stringfellow Hawk,

I did my Distance learning ATPL's with Oxford Air Training - It took me 13 months to complete. I studied on average 2 hours per night during the week and as much as I could during the week-end . I kept my full-time job and managed to get the all thing sorted in a little bit more than 12 months. I couldn't recomand OATS enough, the books are superb, the feedbacks are the best around and the staff (ground Instructors) is so helpfull and competent : Steve Chescher (not sure about the spelling, sorry Steve :o) is a living book , Mike Allen goes straight to the point with No bullsh!t and the Met chap knows his stuff like no-one . Hope this will help you make a decision, I'm not part of this organisation because if the "academic part" has been awsome the admin part and customer service need HUGE improvement but this is another topic.

Hoe that will help you make your choice. SF

[thedove]

Does anyone who has been through LGU or Cabbair distance learning got any comments? BGS seem highly rated, but I've not heard much about the (distance learning) of these two.....

[FlyingForFun]

dove,

Can't comment on Cabair. As for LGU, though, I looked at them very closely. Rather than the two weeks of brush-up and four days of exams for each module, their course has just one week of brush-up per module, and they do all the Monday/Tueday exams in module 1, and the Wednesday/Thursday exams in module two. This results in you having to only take half the time off work that you do with all the other schools, which is why I considered them.

Having done the brush-up at Bristol, though, I can't see how it would be possible to do a decent brush-up course in 1 week. And all the other schools apparently agree, since they all do 2 week brush-up courses, even though 1 week satisfies the CAA minimums.

I posted on here at the time, wondering if anyone had gone through LGU DL and what they thought of the shorter brush-up, but no one replied. That was nearly a year ago, though - someone must have done the course since then...

FFF
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[David Webb]

Ask a professional and e-mail me privately. Get facts not rumour!

Oh, and do not pay up front, pay by instalments, preferably by credit card.

David

[Send Clowns]

Stringfellow

I would agree with David Webb that you email him, but also suggest you email Alex Wittingham (also regular on this forum). Both work for fine schools offering distance learning (GTS and Bristol respectively). I work for a fine school that does not offer distance learning, so I feel both free and qualified to recommend them.