schools for Integrated courses

[kula]

In the abscence of the search function being available at the moment on this site, please could people let me know which schools offer approved intergrated ATPL courses (either in the uk or us with a uk conversion) and what are their prices? It would be good to get an idea of the full range cheapest through to expensive.

Thanks

[gomez]

I believe you have a choice of 3:-

Oxford - APP Course £58k + 3k CAA Fees (no accommodation!)

European Flight Training? (used to be BAE) - Jerez, Spain. About 90k Euros which works out similar to Oxford price but accommodation is in the price.

University of West Michigan (US) - About 45-50k Sterling based on current exchange rates. No accommodation built in.

HTH

Gomez

[Send Clowns]

Actually if you really want integrated, Cabair is another option. I'm sure they can give you a price. Out of interest, why integrated?

[moo]

There are a choice of four, gomez is almost correct, The 4 you have are OATS, Cabair and European Flight Training (formerly BAe) and WMU.

All info is on the CAA website

[kula]

Thanks

Thanks for the replies.

Clowns -- no particular reason except curiosity. I will probably end up going modular anyway but wanted to know what the price difference is. I have heard that some airlines recruit directly out of some of the schools mentioned, is that true?

I think the 0 to atpl modular courses, offered from single schools where you work as a flight instructor to build hours, sound like better value to me anyway.

[Send Clowns]

Most schools have a few airlines with whom they have contacts, perhaps a local airline or one whose chief pilot knows the school's head of training. Naturally the grapevine then helps. This business is all about who you know. This is done on an informal basis, and no school is especially endorsed by an operator for basic training (jet orientation courses perhaps). Schools have tried for years, and claimed special favour, but when I looked into the courses I could not find any claims that stood up to scrutiny; the airlines just don't want to make any commitments.

Any informal links change over time and are subject to the market. For Example now BA say they will only take integrated graduates from certain schools. When they were actually recruiting newly-qualified pilots they used to look at modular students from other schools (SFT for example, when I did my course with them).

The only "first-job" airline I know of which has a policy of taking only integrated graduates is Flybe, and I know for a fact that they have just taken two modular graduates! This shows what you will find out about recruitment in this industry - policy and rules are so flexible as to be almost meaningless.

There's no need to even work as a flight instructor. You only need 150 hours to start a modular CPL course now, and could have the licences to sit in the right seat with less than 250 hours, on a modular course! Costs in the UK, minimum of around £40-42k.

Best of luck!

[moggie]

It's actually "Flight Training Europe", not "European Flight Training" at Jerez.

It used to be "BAE Systems Flight Training Europe" - but you can see for yourself how the new name evolved!