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