Bristol GS
 

I finished all my exams in May last year and the guys and gals in Bristol GS were on the ball, very helpful and very supportive..esp when you were at home on the verge of throwing a folder threw a window!! haha:}

Excellent set-up and certainly would not have been able to get through the exams without them.

I choose Bristol for two reasons;
I narrowed it down to two options and I asked around the airline I work in and asked a lot of the pilots who they went through or who would they recommend and Bristol came up trumps.
I heard that the other school was very elitist and to be honest, I can't tolerate that type of 5h17e...just wanted a good learning environment and support

Bristol is top dog IMHO and you wouldn't be going wrong by going there..
I wish you all the best iwith whatever school you choose:ok:

It is hard to raise an objective judgement of a particular school as most people only attend one school.
My point is that you can read negative comments on Oxford, AFT, Guildhall and their notes or training. However, you rarely, if at all, read anything negative from BGS.

Alex, we salute you....

Of, and I went to Guildhall so have no axe to grind.

BGS - quite simply the best by miles!

Did my ATPL grounds with them after studying with Oxford in the early days of JAA. They take the course, teach you everything you need to know with little "practical" extras then fire you into the exam to come out with the highest marks in the Country.

Need to say to no more - get the course booked.

bristol ground school it will be for me, judging by what i've just read in here!! great advice by everybody. however, being bristol GROUND school, i take it theyonly take you through the exams?
so you can only go with them if you're doing a modular course? is it distance learning only?

Sicky yes they are Distance Learning only. You attend a 2 week brush up course at the end of each of the 2 modules, just before the exams, if that helps :}

that does help, thanks andy :)

great input, looks like Bristol here I come!!!!!

I'm currently looking at ATPL G/S for about 6 months time, and am considering two or three. It might interest you to know that a certain school based at Cranfield is offering distance learning courses for £1500. If money is a priority for you, then you may wish to take a look. Best of luck!

Bristol or GTS
 

Hi - I know there has been lots said about Bristol Ground School but does anyone know how they compare to Ground Training Services? Difficult question as why would you have experience of both schools :hmm: ....worth a try though. Thanks.

Quite a few of us around that have used GTS. V good school.

Different style to BGS - smaller classes/ very individual tuition.

Exam feedback excellent. BGS reputed to be the same (as are most UK schools now)

You can still use the BGS on line data base for additional practice questions. Many of us did.

h-r;)

Thanks very much for the info. How do the course notes compare to BGS?

I ended up using both. No offence meant to BGS as Alex runs a very professional operation but I would go for GTS!

Thank you for the info.

Never seen the BGS Notes so cannot comment (but no doubt somebody from Bristol will do so to fill in the gap).

The GTS notes are comprehensive and provide an effective reference library on all aspects of the subjects covered. Roger (the CI) notes that they are the most complete and comprehensive in the business, and have been built up over many years.

At the end of the day, you need to learn a load of stuff for life and a load of stuff to pass the exams.

My "exam notes" represent the feedback from Roger, Pete and Dave (+ Lionel & a couple of other specialists for us maverick helicopter types..) and are in big print in a single A4 notebook.

However this book, which is the output from the 2 X 2week courses, I now keep for posterity.

When I want to check a point I go back to the big folders in the cupboard.

Why choose? Use the best of both.


NB If this is getting boring for everybody else, feel free to PM or call me.

h-r;)

Cheers, I have pm'ed you.

Can`t comment on BGS JAR notes but used them for the national Navigation exams a few years back and they were very good.

Used GTS to sit my JAR exams and passed all my exams backed up by fantastic tuition, practise exams and spot on feedback. What you have to remember is that GTS instructors were around in the days when PPSC was the big player in the ground school field, and you will find that between these guys they have launched thousands of airline careers to date.

I can only comment as i have found, and to overlook GTS would be a bad mistake. If at the end of the courses the brain has more capacity to deal with even more questions, then as Red eye states enrol on the BGS online database, but bet you could pass purely on the GTS info!.

Just to add to this, GTS are now tied in with PAT at Bournemouth, which if you didn`t` already know has a fantastic name for modular flight training. So their you have it 2 fantastic organisations all rolled into one. Enjoy the course:} :}

I didn't do a GTS course but I have had the priviledge of experience instruction from Dave Webb and Roger Henshaw when they were at PPSC. I also used GTS's notes to supplement the notes from my full time groundschool course (which was pretty good, but had some gaps: which GTS's notes more than adequately filled).

Basically, the GTS notes are brilliant. They are extremely clearly laid out; not too wordy (except where they need to be); very factual and the diagrams are very clear too.

All this backed up by probably about 100 years' aggregate (maybe more) of aviation experience from guys who really, really know how to put their subjects across.

It is also "interesting to note" ;) that Dave Webb is (or certainly used to be) a CAA consultant, writing some of the questions for JAA exams.

Thanks to all that have replied. Cheers.

Just to add my personal experience as I have just finished a course with GTS.

Dave and Roger are both obviously very experienced and are excellent instructors.

I agree with the previous replies, the notes are also top notch. Having worked in and around training for some time I am in a position of being able to compare them to most of the other schools notes.

I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending GTS.

Bristol Ground School
 

Hi,

1st thread - PPRUNE NEWBIE HERE!

i am hoping to start my ATPL study sometime within the next few months.
I've heard that Bristol are the trend setters in this field and would like any advice from anyone who has been there.

I've been in contact with BGS and I've been made aware that most students pay for module 1 then module 2 when they are ready for it opposed to paying the full £1900 - any comments here?

Also, I am expecting this to be the BIGGEST mountain I'll ever climb by studying for the ATPL's so can anyone give me a ball-park figure as to how much studying per week I'd need to do?

Thanks for any advice on the subject

A330

I'm with BGS, got the 2 week revision course next week, found the materials excellent, I just bought module 1 first and then just study at a pace you are comfortable with, then you project forward to estimate your completion date and ring up and book your revision course 2-3 months in advance. I would suggest you go to the BGS website and read the information on the forums there, that should answer any questions that you may have.

Hiya A330

The search function is your best friend here on PPRuNe, there are a myriad of threads on this subject

Dean

You will be in good hands with Bristol!!:)

BGS!
 

Been there recently for Mod 1 brush up and they were great :ok:
Excellent notes and the 2 week brush up prepared me well for the exams.
Prepare yourself for some hard work!

Brush ups
 

Hi

I have researched and researched and read all your threads and it looks like I will definitely be signing up for BGS. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me how much money is needed for the accom and living expenses while on the brush up courses and exam sittings, I'm trying to budget so I don't fall short, you all know how it is.... all info appreciated

Cheers:)

I did my ATPLs with BGS a few years ago and they were excellent !!


Top Banana :O

Captain KC

I'm doing the brush up course there in May. I have booked a B&B which is £125/week and then £6.50 a night for dinner. I guess then you need to add in Lunch, although my B&B think they said they could provide a pack lunch as well.

As for exams, Think the nearest travel lodge is about £67 a night! I am planning on Commuting as can't really justify the expense especially when I only live 45 minutes from Gatwick

Hope this helps

The place I stayed at was £125 per week, breakfast included and evening meals were extra but well worth it - its nice to come home after studying and not having to worry about finding something to eat! There are lots of good places to stay on the accomodation list on the BGS site.

My exams were at gatwick - managed to get a couple of nights at a saver rate which you can get off the website, £26 per night which was handy!

I have done my research and have pretty much decided that BGS will be the way forward. Now I have addressed this in a subtley different way previously. I do not think i am that intelligent and am just wondering if the tutor types at BGS ever get pixxsed off answering stupid questions that I think Im bound to ask or is their service aimed at intellect as well as idiocy . Anybody here really struggeled with this studying if so how did you find the help from BGS . Overall from the impression I get from these forums I think the help would be good wheras others lime errrrm coughoxfordahem I feel may be alil "bugger off your not worthy "
Any thoughts

No such thing as stupid questions just stupid people!

Maxdrypower
No need to worry the help and support from BGS is excellent. Take a look at the JALS Forum - Technical subjects area. You don't need to register to browse.

http://www.jals.co.uk/forum/

Also look at the archive to get an idea of the sorts of questions asked and the way thay have been answered.

http://www.jals.co.uk/forum/archive/index.php

I know Scroggs has said it many times on here, but seriously, if you use the search function on the JALS site you'll find that many of the questions you want to ask have been answered previously.

Good luck.

crp/1, crp/5
 

just a quickie lad and lasses I have finnally done it and parted with 1100 squiddlies for mod 1. All references I have seen so far in the material have been for the CRP/5 I already have a CRP/1 from PPL . Is the CRP/1 sufficient or is it missing vital stuff and things needed for atpl ? Also i have one one those spiffing lil calculator things that do it all for you , are they verboten in exams or perfectly acceptable ?

CRP5
 

Hi,

You need the CRP5. It uses higher speeds, plus gives solutions to compressibility encountered at M0.4 +

Buy it and Baz will teach you how to really use it. - Avoid plastic brians!!!

Best of luck.

Funkie

Signing up for Bristol.gs
 

Quick question. How do you sign up for the ATPL training with Bristol.gs? I thought there would be a link or form or something on their website but I can't find nothing at all.

Hope someone will clarify before I drop them an e-mail and embarrass myself :O Thanks.

Phone them up, how is that embarassing? They are great people, a great school and just like most businesses, welcome customers. If they were to embarrass you for not knowing how to enrol then they would be doing themselves no favours and would leave you with a bad impression which you would be likely to pass onto other people. They wont do that!

Just ring them.

I meant "embarrassing" (tongue in cheek, of course) as in there being a big bold "SIGN UP" link somewhere obvious in their webpage and me missing it :cool: OK, so I take it it is a phone-up thing then. Thanks.

The link...
 

LH2, the direct link is here:

http://213.48.96.23/atponline/jalo/index.asp

although it is fairly obvious from the Bristol.gs homepage how to get there!

Anyway, good luck :ok:

That link is for 3 months access to the Bristol ATP website/question bank which is completely different to signing up for the Bristol GS per se. Incidentally the ATP question bank saved my bacon in the June exam sitting just gone. Word for word many of the actual questions and well worth the 50 quid in my opinion.

Hmmm. Maybe you should actually talk to them before signing up and commiting to an ATPL course anyway!?! :rolleyes:

OP. Just to let you know, got that sorted with a couple quick e-mails.

I guess I was expecting to see a link or something on their webpage and the lack of it threw me off---right after my afternoon siesta my wits weren't all there either :E

potkettleblack
 

You're correct, I'm guilty of not RTFQ as my instructors keep saying!

I had to phone up to get the software / find out about the course - there was no way of doing this online. But don't worry - they wever very friendly and helpful!

Re the £50 for three months - you're absolutely right - there is no way I would be without this resource - for less than the cost of one re-sit you can test yourself properly, and dip in and out whenever you have a few minutes.