BGS vs Aeros Ground School

[rhysgittoes]

Hi All,

I've recently completed my PPL and I'm starting my ATPL ground school studies / hour building phase.

I'm in full time employment right now and have had wake up call that I'll always regret it if I don't pursue flying as a career.
Most people reccomend a complete distance course for the ATPL's, however I'd like to complete it as quick as possible as I'm 24 at the moment.

Aeros ground school has offered to allow me to complete their ground school coruse half at distance, and half fulltime classroom based starting in September. From them this is the quickest way to do it while remaning in full time employment for the next few months.

BGS of course is cheaper however is full distance, which is expected to take longer.

Does anyone have experinece on the resources provided for both BGS and Aeros, and how they compare?

I understand they both use Padpilot, most people say BGS is the gold standard.

Cheers

Rhys

[Beaker_]

I can't comment on Aero's, but I studied with BGS and they were brilliant. If you're studying with BGS and you can put in the hours, there's nothing stopping you completing it quicker than a traditional full time course in a class room. It just depends on how quickly you can get through the material. Just bear in mind you have to attend a week-long revision week at the end of each module of which there are three. This can be done in person of via webinar. I've heard of some people doing the whole lot in three months, but this really would be quite some undertaking in my opinion. Also, with BGS you could start in a few days time if you really wanted! You'd just buy the materials and crack on!

However, unless there's a specific reason to shoot through it as quickly as you can, there is no rush. I'd say the majority of people I saw taking exams were in their 30's and at 24 you have many years ahead of you. In my opinion, it's far better you take your time and make sure you understand the material properly. This is another thing I specifically liked about BGS. They had pre-recorded webinars covering the meat of most of the topics which helped with revision or even taking the edge off stuff that was difficult to digest as written material. The handy thing about this is you can also easily rewind and re-watch the bits you didn't quite understand the first time around.

I believe Pad Pilot is a different application; BGS have their own which can run on a variety of platforms.

I hope that helps and good luck

[rudestuff]

Classroom based courses are fixed in time, whereas distance learning is flexible - which is usually interpreted as being slower and taking longer. However there's no reason why you can't use distance learning to get things done quicker. I went flat out and took one week per subject.

[VariablePitchP]

You’re going to be hammering the question bank something silly once you get started. BGS is known for their bank being really good, most people have to at least some extent used it during their training.

You’re obsessing a little about your age. You’re 24, not 54. Far better to take it m just a little bit slower and not screw it up than try and race through it, get some fails, and lock yourself out of jobs.

[mattpilot]

Doing it with Bristol -> Basically invested about 4 hours a day into the learning process. Took me about 1 month per module, give or take a week for waiting on a revision class, another month hitting the AviationExam question bank (definitely get another question bank and dont rely on just BGS). So about 2.5 months per module altogether. Nearing the end of Module 3 now and i feel exhausted - dread looking at another lesson, You *could* do it faster if you feel like it, i suppose. But i'm happy with Bristol - good support, good platform - teachers are good in the online revision course. 100% online & 100% english were the selling points for me. I didn't buy any additional books or materials that were offered - only their online platform. Didn't feel like i needed it (i have previous experience as an instructor in the US) - your mileage may vary.

[Arena_33]

In a similar position to the OP. Mattpilot, with BGS, how many 'lessons' are there roughly per module? Looking to plan ahead - thanks!

[mattpilot]

I could give you an exact lesson count, but it doesn't matter - each lesson also has varying depth. I would roughly say that i spend an hour on one lesson - some shorter, some longer.
I can say that Module 1 is roughly 35% of the meat, Module 2 about 40 %, and Module 3 seems fairly short .
BGS has their revision courses online (and in person) on a weekly rotation. This was the biggest selling point - i couldn't bare the thought of having to wait months for the next, or having to travel somewhere to finish the course.
If you got 4 hours a day to spend, every day, you can absolutely do this course in 3 months if you dont take breaks to study other question banks or do the exams. I wouldn't recommend doing the exams with only Bristol. I've learned a lot of stuff at AviationExam that Bristol didn't cover (or maybe i snoozed over those parts).

[rhysgittoes]

Cheers for all the replies, it's pretty clear that BGS is the best option and it's up the individual to really pursure the courses.
I'm pretty set on BGS now. But after going to my flight school this weekend I've been thrown off the rails again.

From my understanding there's no disadvantage going modular, as long as you ace the theory atpl's and go to a reasonbly good school for the professional training.
Someone at my old flight school told me since he didn't go integrated he's been in the BA hold pool for 3 years while direct entry pilots from integrated courses have been getting first jobs there.
As you can probably imagine this worreid me, as if it's an extra 10k - 15k to go integrated, although its "Wasted" money, staying in a hold pool with 3 years less potential pay is also wasting money.

Anyone got a 2 cents on this?

[605carsten]

Distance course still requires 10% classroom or in BGS case on live Zoom video class. Nothing is “all distance”

You need the course completed for the sign-off from the ATO to even be allowed near an Austro test center.

Distance course can be done at your pace so you can do it real quick as long as you sign up for the live classes to comply with the 10% rule in all distance-courses

you will need to study the stuff but at same time do banks ( I did BGS and Aviation Exam ) for a very specific reason:

-The grammar and formulation in english is so messed up as foreign question writers seem to write question in their native language and then put it thru google-translate 2 times.

Again… the banks teach you the way they try to trick you with bad english and formulation.


I just did ATPL(H) Bridge Course with Austro and used BGS distance course as I work as an Airplane pilot with ATPL(A) already

5-10% questions seemed similiar to banks.. but everything else I had never seen before. Know the stuff and combine study and Banks at same time. No more cheating is possible unless you know stuff…

with the above, I did course, then spent the 12 days leading up to the writtens by studying and banks… passed all 5 subjects first sitting over the 2 days at remote test center.

[mattpilot]

You need the course completed for the sign-off from the ATO to even be allowed near an Austro test center.

You get a signoff after completing each module & the corresponding Revision week. So 3 signoffs in total

[605carsten]

Ok, I just needed one as I was “only” doing 5 for the bridge A to H course

Also remember you need a KSA course sign off which the distance ATO provides at same time when you buy a course.

( the KSA was response to feed back from airlines saying cadets still are not what they want… no s**t sherlock.. you cant substitute experience with useless trivia which alot of the ATPL tests are..)

[paco]

KSA is an ill thought out pile of dingo's kidneys. At any rate, it is no business of the State's - all they should do is ensure that pilots have enough knowledge to fly safely. If companies want pilots with a certain attitude, they should do the selection.