Which ATPL Ground School?

[mcgoo]

I'm aware of the prices, my point is you have just advised everyone not to go to Bristol because it is £200 more than Oxford, in the big scheme of things you will spend a minimum of £30,000 getting a frozen ATPL, so that £200 is less than 1% of the total spend, I personally have seen a lot of Oxford students at BGS having transferred and have heard many gripes about OAT so for you to "advise" anybody not to go to Bristol having no experience of ATPL study or either school beggars belief, your only argument being £200 difference in course prices!

[Turbine King]

CATS £1000 ATPL Course

While you debate it over

The smart ones go to CATS who've introduced a £1000 ATPL whom my brother has just joined.

Since I did the course it looks so good but that then is looking back with exams etc under my belt

I'll be redoing it online through my brother so will keep u posted

James

[davey147]

Just looked at CATS they look quite good too.

£200 is a lot of money to me, and it will be to most self funded students (those who dont have their family pay for them) so if I can save £200 I will.

[expedite08]

Suggest you all take a look a Ground Training Services GTS based in Bournemouth. Excellent instructors and very thourough notes. A little too much possibly on the notes side of things, but a very good refrence system all the same. Suppliment this with BGS online Q bank and your laughing!

[MIKECR]

All you need is a half decent question bank, the rest doesnt make much odds.

[captain_rossco]

bit of heat!

Its nice to see everyone supporting the schools they came from and may attend.

Davey 147 is certainly getting it for the comments about Bristol! must say its a liitle deserved given the total proportional cost of training and the fact that BGS have a fantastic reputation (as do many others). Come on Davey my friend you said 'everyone keeps saying how expensive oxford is....' when i do believe you yourself referenced oxfords relative 'expense' in the modular/integrated debate? You have some other good posts so no one will be holding it against you though buddy. I know that I'm making similar decisions to many others at this early stage of my flight training, and think that it would be helpful to anyone using pprune as a tool for training options to be given advice on previous experiences and perhaps not just outright 'words of wisdom' due to ATPL flight school cost? (especially when its a matter of a few bob, yes £200 is alot but not in context).

This is not a dig in anyway, but more just a little nudge in the direction of the 'useful info' forum rather than the 'i once saw a website' forum.

Best Regards

Rossco

[will fly for food 06]

Has anyone used the ground school at bournmouth through cabair?

[nastyevil110]

ppl to atpl

Hi all,

I want to do the atpl i have just finished ppl, can i jump straight away to atpl(that covers the cpl as well) or i have to do cpl theory before i do the atpl. please reply.

thanks.

[Whirlygig]

You can go straight to ATPL.

Cheers

Whirls

[Phenom100]

London Met

Come on, their must be someone on here who is starting at London Met in March???

[Brian304]

ATPL theory cabair or oxford?

hi everyone

Just wanted some advice on the start of the ATPL in march, as I'm considering two schools but still cannot make my mind up. Well the cabair course is only £2250 in comparison to the £4000 odd in oxford, but the start date for cabair is 5th and will be abit tight for me to finish my study in that time, but the oxford start date on 25th will be the best dae and give me a few days off aswell. So just wondered if anyone had much experience with these two schools undergoing the ATPL? and which one would you all prefer.

Thanks all

Brian304

[EpsilonVaz]

To be honest, I'd wouldn't recommend either.

In my honest opinion I would choose CATs (http://www.cranfieldaviation.co.uk/)

or if not, then Bristol (http://www.bristol.gs)

[combineharvester]

Brian304,

It's very rare to find someone that has done their ATPL theory at more than one training provider!! Especially on a full time course. My advice is to visit both (or any of the schools mentioned above), talk to current students and see what the atmosphere of each place is like. What suits one person may not suit another. A big consideration for me when i did mine was the commute as i was not in a position at the time to afford to stay on site. In the event i ended up doing Distance Learning anyway!

Hope this helps

ch

[PlaneHomerS]

Personally i am going to go with Bristol.gs (when the time comes) as i have only heard good things about them but i have a m8 who is using the CATS notes and they seem to be pretty good too.

Oxford, Cabair -

[Brian304]

I want a fully residential course not a distance learning....

Though Bristol GS and CATs are two very good schools, but still I am looking for a full RESIDENTIAL course and not distance learning course. But I have just seen that CATs is currently waiting for approval of there residentil course, so I think that is a good approach for them. But still I am looking for past experiences from a student from each school to give me their advice. But I am currently on the modular program with cabair, but the timing for me isn't as good as oxford, so I'm basically trying to balance the both. I know that there are many good schools out there like GCNS e.t.c but they do not start in march, I am aiming to start in march so that I have enough time to finish and study another masters degree, thats where the rush is.

BRI

[geraldn]

Did all my training at Oxford, theory and flight training was top notch, and the instructors and staff where very helpful. One thing you should keep in mind is that OAT is also an integrated school, so obviously as a MOD student you do feel slightly sidelined and need to use your own initiative on certain matters since you are not held by the hand(no offence to integrated guys). having said that you are paying much less and its a good experience for character building.

[ATPLTrainee]

I´m doing an integrated ATPL course with Cabair and i found the groundschool was excellent and you´ll see similar reflections on that point of view on the Cabair topic. Best option is really to check both out, but if starting 20 days earlier saves you 1500quid then its worth thinking about it carefully.

[Cyclone733]

I did my ground school with Cabair last year, the ground school was very good. With the money you save you could sign up for the Bristol question bank and grab a copy of the Oxford Met CD, both really useful. I ended up with good first time passes, as did almost all of my course

[tom775257]

Is there a way to compare pass rates? I heard a word of mouth rumour about one of the listed school's pass rates being quite poor in comparison to the other ATPL theory schools in the UK. I trained at ATA, Coventry (long since gone) - an excellent school, such a shame it ceased to exist.
I'm in agreement with "combineharvester," most people have experience of one school only so I guess advice is generally going to be very subjective.
Good luck!

[EpsilonVaz]

Originally Posted by Brian304

Though Bristol GS and CATs are two very good schools, but still I am looking for a full RESIDENTIAL course and not distance learning course. But I have just seen that CATs is currently waiting for approval of there residentil course, so I think that is a good approach for them.

Hi there, as far as I know CATs has been running residential courses for some time, I know a few students that have been through the course and said it has been top notch. At the moment I am doing the CATs Residential Groundschool at Egnatia Aviation in Greece. I have to say the study guides are clear and easy to follow and the CATs instructors really know their stuff, ontop of that, they also really know how to teach which I feel has helped me achive high grades in my first module.