Best Ground School Thread '09 -'11 (Merged)
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Hi All
Does anyone know where I can do ATPL classroom based training for my theory in NW England? Distance learning is no good for me, young daughter in the house means too many distractions.
Cheers
Does anyone know where I can do ATPL classroom based training for my theory in NW England? Distance learning is no good for me, young daughter in the house means too many distractions.
Cheers
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: UK
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try CATS CATS Global Landing Page or click on the banner if it is on the top of the page 999 pounds for distance learning 2499 for inhouse.
Cheers
Matt
Cheers
Matt
Join Date: Jun 2007
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best gs
Hi
Do yourself a favour and do your ATPL distance learning with Bristol GS.
The course is faultless and you will pass if you put in the effort. Secondly I would purchase a copy of the Oxford Met CD Rom too. Excellent tool.
gb
Do yourself a favour and do your ATPL distance learning with Bristol GS.
The course is faultless and you will pass if you put in the effort. Secondly I would purchase a copy of the Oxford Met CD Rom too. Excellent tool.
gb
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Best CPL School?
I am looking at CPL school's and would like people's thoughts on the area's listed below:
1. Standard of aircraft (age of a/c and up to date avionics)
2. Professionalism of staff (from receptionist to MD and including your instructor) - I cant be doing with the instructor shouting and balling all the time. A good working relationship in a must.
3. Any extra's included? (such as landing fee's, planning etc)
4. Any special offer's on accomodation etc and other facilities such as canteen/cafe.
5. Cost (I don't want my eye's taken out) and location in the UK
Thanks for your thoughts.
1. Standard of aircraft (age of a/c and up to date avionics)
2. Professionalism of staff (from receptionist to MD and including your instructor) - I cant be doing with the instructor shouting and balling all the time. A good working relationship in a must.
3. Any extra's included? (such as landing fee's, planning etc)
4. Any special offer's on accomodation etc and other facilities such as canteen/cafe.
5. Cost (I don't want my eye's taken out) and location in the UK
Thanks for your thoughts.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Theres a nice CPL school based in clould 9 they will pay for your CPL and they will pay you £1200 per month while your training, I can understand if this offer isnt good as there are more schools offering better terms. Please be careful about which option you take as your a pilot and theres a massive shortage of pilots on cloud 9.
I am looking at CPL school's and would like people's thoughts on the area's listed below:
1. Standard of aircraft (age of a/c and up to date avionics)
2. Professionalism of staff (from receptionist to MD and including your instructor) - I cant be doing with the instructor shouting and balling all the time. A good working relationship in a must.
3. Any extra's included? (such as landing fee's, planning etc)
4. Any special offer's on accomodation etc and other facilities such as canteen/cafe.
5. Cost (I don't want my eye's taken out) and location in the UK
Thanks for your thoughts.
1. Standard of aircraft (age of a/c and up to date avionics)
2. Professionalism of staff (from receptionist to MD and including your instructor) - I cant be doing with the instructor shouting and balling all the time. A good working relationship in a must.
3. Any extra's included? (such as landing fee's, planning etc)
4. Any special offer's on accomodation etc and other facilities such as canteen/cafe.
5. Cost (I don't want my eye's taken out) and location in the UK
Thanks for your thoughts.
I've yet to see a decent thread on here addressing a comparison between different FTO's for a particular course. I guess most CPL holders will have completed their course at a single school only, so the basis for such a comparison just isn't there.
I like the look of Stapleford for CPL. Seems to get good reviews on here
Best of luck
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: EGCC, EGGP, Relocatable to all UK
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by any chance are you looking around as well slipstream ?
I lpl based trying to find my way through the cpl, ir, single, multi, full time, part time options, be good to swap notes. I'm gona do some visits too, I have ties with ravenair but also looking at going down south so many people think highly of bcft.
thing thats swaying me down there is being at a caa test centre and with a company that do them day in day out.
Pm me if you like or anyone else thats facing the same daunting prospect !
I lpl based trying to find my way through the cpl, ir, single, multi, full time, part time options, be good to swap notes. I'm gona do some visits too, I have ties with ravenair but also looking at going down south so many people think highly of bcft.
thing thats swaying me down there is being at a caa test centre and with a company that do them day in day out.
Pm me if you like or anyone else thats facing the same daunting prospect !
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Had a little chuckle regards the AFT Coventry recommendation. Does no one remember the trauma they caused numerous students in February this year when they ceased the full time groundschool with 1 weeks notice leaving me and other students 1 week away from our first set of exams and no course to return to !! We then had to battle with , yes battle , the CEO John Dixon driving hundred's of miles and sending numerous mails and letters and even threatening court proceedings. Avoid with an oversized barge pole. Second the great instructors but poo poo the management !!
Bristol is the school for me !! I took the remaining 10 subjects in 5 months with an average score of 96%. Instructors and infrastructure is second to none!
Bristol is the school for me !! I took the remaining 10 subjects in 5 months with an average score of 96%. Instructors and infrastructure is second to none!
Join Date: Aug 2010
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I just can't decide!! ATPL's?
Hi everyone, basically, I have just completed my PPL, and just had my class 1 initial medical. I now just have to decide what ATPL school to choose, ill be studying from home because of work commitments. The 2 schools I was looking at were BRISTOL or CATS? Yes iv heard all the talk about how good bristol is, however looking at CATS, CATS seems to be more spread out and is done in 3 modules rather than 2 at BRISTOL, however Bristol seems to be more structured AAAHHHH! Please can someone shed some more light on these 2 options?
Last edited by SkillsToBurn; 12th Jan 2011 at 10:20. Reason: spelling
Hovering AND talking
Join Date: Feb 2003
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I wouldn't have thought there was much more light to shed than you already have!
Bristol requires two-week brush-up courses plus the exam days after that. Will your employer let you have two lots of three weeks off work?
Do you need a formal structure in order to motivate your self-study? Or are you a self-starter?
You can still subscribe to the Bristol Question Bank whichever school you decide upon.
Cheers
Whirls
Bristol requires two-week brush-up courses plus the exam days after that. Will your employer let you have two lots of three weeks off work?
Do you need a formal structure in order to motivate your self-study? Or are you a self-starter?
You can still subscribe to the Bristol Question Bank whichever school you decide upon.
Cheers
Whirls
Join Date: Aug 2010
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Hey Whirls cheers for the reply.
To be honest with you, I do need formal structure for self study, I feel I work best with a structured plan of ATTACK. My employer has been really flexible with my time off work, especiall when it came to the PPL, so there are no real peoblems with getting the time off, etc. Long as I make up for it!
To be honest with you, I do need formal structure for self study, I feel I work best with a structured plan of ATTACK. My employer has been really flexible with my time off work, especiall when it came to the PPL, so there are no real peoblems with getting the time off, etc. Long as I make up for it!
Join Date: May 2009
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Bristol Bristol Bristol , they are awesomely good and one of the most proven training providers for distance learning , I didnt do DL but used their database and notes to supplement my own , just have a look at their notes compared to Cats , Oxford , BCFT etc you will soon see the difference
Join Date: Jul 2008
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What's your academic background? If you struggled with A-levels and needed teachers and parents on your back throughout high school then perhaps think about the school with the best teaching reputation, with plenty of classroom tuition.
If you're the sort of person who can study by themselves, and take to things quite quickly, just do the cats £999 option, study online, and sign up to the oxford question bank. It's what I'm doing when I graduate this summer - mainly because it saves me about £2000 which is a heck of a lot of flying.
If you're the sort of person who can study by themselves, and take to things quite quickly, just do the cats £999 option, study online, and sign up to the oxford question bank. It's what I'm doing when I graduate this summer - mainly because it saves me about £2000 which is a heck of a lot of flying.
Join Date: Apr 2010
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I couldn't agree more with AMS
I am currently doing the CATS route and have my first exams next week.
I had my study week over here in Florida with Mr S. and it was great.
Being able to go through it in 3 phases suits me perfectly having a family and full time job.
For someone who hasn't studied for many years the classroom time was a really good experience which was a pleasant surprise after thumbing my way through the material.
I would suggest though that getting the books is not a bad idea, I have got the full set, they are well set out, with very digestible sections and practice tests at the end of each part so you can pick up and put down with each subject as you wish.
As AMS mentioned, there is a very personal feel to the CATS ethos, Stuart is always contactable and very generous with his time and knowledge and his motivation certainly seems to be help you become a more knowledgable pilot rather than someone who can just pass exams.
Fingers crossed for my exams next week.
I had my study week over here in Florida with Mr S. and it was great.
Being able to go through it in 3 phases suits me perfectly having a family and full time job.
For someone who hasn't studied for many years the classroom time was a really good experience which was a pleasant surprise after thumbing my way through the material.
I would suggest though that getting the books is not a bad idea, I have got the full set, they are well set out, with very digestible sections and practice tests at the end of each part so you can pick up and put down with each subject as you wish.
As AMS mentioned, there is a very personal feel to the CATS ethos, Stuart is always contactable and very generous with his time and knowledge and his motivation certainly seems to be help you become a more knowledgable pilot rather than someone who can just pass exams.
Fingers crossed for my exams next week.
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CATS allday long, I did the DL course and completed it within 11 months and that was on part time basis.
Either way (DL or IN House) you will always have excellent instuctor support.
Either way (DL or IN House) you will always have excellent instuctor support.
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Bristol
Bristol... sorry I know its been repeated endlessly but I'll state it again they're course material & brush-up is well structured. The lecturers are great -only too happy and patient to assist with difficulties wrt the course material.
Also their admin team -very VERY responsive to emails, phone call enquiries.
In summary a first class outfit in so many ways!!
Also their admin team -very VERY responsive to emails, phone call enquiries.
In summary a first class outfit in so many ways!!
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I went with bristol, and it was awesome. Lecturers are good and get you well prepared for the exams. Either way though they will be hard going and you get out what you put in!
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I'm currently at bristol and i'm about to take the mod2 exams. Excellent course, awesome instructors well work the few extra quid! So far all first time passes and if all goes well and i pass mod2 it will have taken me 9 months to complete the course, i know people that have done it in 6 months and less!
I'm not going to lie to you mod1 was very pressured with the 8 exams including the dreaded gen nav but i'm rather do 2 sets of exams as appose to 3! however i can see the advantage of splitting it into 3 chunks but that would mean more time of work.
Wherever you go when you attend the brush up do all the work they set and you will sail through them!
Good luck with your choice.
I'm not going to lie to you mod1 was very pressured with the 8 exams including the dreaded gen nav but i'm rather do 2 sets of exams as appose to 3! however i can see the advantage of splitting it into 3 chunks but that would mean more time of work.
Wherever you go when you attend the brush up do all the work they set and you will sail through them!
Good luck with your choice.
Bristol are good and you will get results however slightly expensive and require a lot of extra time for the brush up course. That said they are still very good.
The ideal combination would be the Bristol brush-up course, their question bank and the Oxford ATPL Manuals. The quality of English is much better and subjects are explained clearly. With the Bristol manuals I found myself having to read the same paragraphs over and over again only to realise I wasn't understanding it because the quality of the written work wasn't too great.
Go to Bristol if:
- You want a great pass mark.
- You're willing to pay a little bit extra.
- You have the extra time available for the brush-up.
Don't go to Bristol if:
- You are sometimes easily offended by really bad, sexist jokes.
- You are not a fan of the beautiful English countryside.
Mostly the staff are lovely. Naturally you're not going to get on well with all the instructors but on the flip side there are some top notch, A-star, quality ones like Tony and Tom. Tom really does pull out some classic one liners which made Flight Planning so much easier to digest and Tony really takes care of students and is more than happy to explain the subjects you're not too sure about, ensuring you understand why and not just telling you "well thats the answer just deal with it".
Any other questions please feel free to message me.
The ideal combination would be the Bristol brush-up course, their question bank and the Oxford ATPL Manuals. The quality of English is much better and subjects are explained clearly. With the Bristol manuals I found myself having to read the same paragraphs over and over again only to realise I wasn't understanding it because the quality of the written work wasn't too great.
Go to Bristol if:
- You want a great pass mark.
- You're willing to pay a little bit extra.
- You have the extra time available for the brush-up.
Don't go to Bristol if:
- You are sometimes easily offended by really bad, sexist jokes.
- You are not a fan of the beautiful English countryside.
Mostly the staff are lovely. Naturally you're not going to get on well with all the instructors but on the flip side there are some top notch, A-star, quality ones like Tony and Tom. Tom really does pull out some classic one liners which made Flight Planning so much easier to digest and Tony really takes care of students and is more than happy to explain the subjects you're not too sure about, ensuring you understand why and not just telling you "well thats the answer just deal with it".
Any other questions please feel free to message me.
