Commuting to Oxford Airfield

[davepearsall]

Looking into the Integrated course I was wondering if anyone had successfully completed the course having commuted from relatively far.

The main problem for me would be paying X amount of money on accommodation. I live in Birmingham and using the wonders of autoroute I have figured out the airfield is 60 miles from my house. I worked out I would be using around £50-55 pounds per week on petrol if I was to commute 5 days a week.

Would this be a foolish idea due to the amount of work already involved in the course without the worry of getting to and from the airfield.

Anyone ever done this?

Many Thanks

[Send Clowns]

Or get a part-time job and work 3 hours a day, earning £80 a week which will pay for a room (I assume); you save 3 hours commuting so no time lost and gain all that nice petrol money, and get into the real world occasionally.

[Whirlygig]

Have you seen the Oxford traffic?

Oxford is, at least, geared up for student accommodation and there are many agencies that can put you in touch with house shares. Look in the Oxford Times and see if lodgings wouldn't be preferable.

There might be other Integrated Students in the same boat and may want to house share as well.

Cheers

Whirls

[EGAC_Ramper]

Personally Id try getting somewhere to share rent with in Kidlington or the like.The amount of work you'll be doing in the evenings is hard enough after being knackered from the classes,then to do the driving back and forth.......I think its tad too much.


Regards

[helicopter-redeye]

Have you seen the Oxford traffic?

Never mind the Oxyford traffic. Have you seen it on the M40!

Try B&B lodging some of the week around the Garden City, you'll only be a few mins (against the traffic) from the airport and you could still drive one or two days if you had some reason to (like its nicer to go home than to a box ..)

h-r

NB My aunt lives on the GC, I'll ask her if she lets out spare rooms

[Maude Charlee]

Only guy I knew who commuted (similar mileage, opposite direction) unfortunately failed to complete successfully. I dare say the travelling didn't help. Perfectly easy for someone with average academic ability to study and work p/t, especially at the weekend without compromising exam results. The flying programme is sufficiently slack that there is more free time than during groundschool, and work becomes even easier.

Don't commute - it will prove to be a false economy in many ways.

[VC10 Rib22]

I agree with all the above posts, you should really try and live locally if at all possible. I appreciate that on-site costs are prohibitive for you, so why don't you use the power of pprune or the OATS website to hook up with other students to arrange accomodation. It works out a hell of a lot cheaper, you will have other brains to help you with any ATPL problems, you can party whenever you want, you wont be affected by the Algerians (as lovely as they all are) and you will save a hell of a lot of fuel, time and frustration.

As for your £55 budget for fuel, what about tyres, brake pads, brake discs, clutch, oil, bulbs, cracked lights or windscreen, or any of the many other things which can go wrong in a car with high mileage? These are things which, especially if you do not have a warranty for your car, you cannot ignore. However, the real killer will be if you are involved in an accident (some of the people around here just cannot drive) - that could cause you untold expense not to mention severe difficulty in getting to Oxford. Remember, driving in rush hour can seriously tire you for class and for study, do you really need the stress?

On a final note, I'll leave you with this - one of the guys in my class worked out that during groundschool his commuting distance was equal to him having driven all the way around the world....... that's a LOT of miles!!!

VC10 Rib22

[Genghis the Engineer]

Regardless of cost and logistics, think how well equipped you'll be to study (or fly) each day after a long and possibly irritating drive. Then consider the cost of just a few more flying hours because you weren't quite as attentive as you'd have preferred to be.

G

[FlyingForFun]

I tried commuting from Blackpool to Leeds for my Multi Engine Piston course. It's probably slightly further than you're thinking of commuting, but not too much further.

The couse is only 5 hours long, and took 3 days. At the end of the three days, I was absolutely exhausted - never again. I went back to Leeds later for my IR, and now again for the MCC, and I won't commute again - I've found some cheap accomodation nearby.

It's also worth pointing out that at the time I did the MEP course I was working as a full-time instructor, flying around 4 hours a day. So flying for 5 hours over 3 days really was a very low workload for me, and wouldn't have caused the slightest problem if it wasn't for the commuting.

FFF
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[davepearsall]

nice one, thanks for all the information. It's been on much help.

[IWANTWINGS]

I completed my ground school studies at Oxford in July and commuted 40 miles each way, everyday for the whole 7 months. I can see the down sides to it, but personally i found it no problem, and still came out with an average in the 90's. I was not the only one on my course who commuted everyday either. If you do it from day one, it just becomes the norm. Those that used to travel home at weekends thought it must be difficult doing the trip everyday, (plus the 3-4 hours study in the eve) but i knew no different. I also had the added benefits of home cooked food, washing etc all done for me, whilst at the same time saving money on accomodation...so thats my positive comment to the overall negative consensus!!