EASA ATPL audio files?
 

Folks,

I have not found anything that resembles the Gleim and ASA CD's/ MP3's that I bought for my FAA exams (PPL, IR) for JAR- or EASA-country.

Any clues? Might be helpful for long train rides, commuting in general, going for a walk etc. Doesn't have to be illegal, I paid for the other stuff as well and it was well worth it.

The problem is that if we released the ones we have, for example, we would only ever sell one copy - they would be available over the internet immediately afterwards. We reserve that kind of stuff for classroom use only.

Your intentions are obviously honourable, but it's a lot of work to have it abused like that, and for a relatively small market and return.

And before you ask, we have looked into the Ipad, but getting past Apple is even more work! :)

RE: Paco
 

I honestly think that you and everyone else who reasons that way are missing some points.
Don't worry to much about the illegal copying, since everyone who is going for ATPLs still have to be registered in an official ground school and attend class.
It's not like the FAA world, where i can ready any FAA publication get an instructor to endorse me and off i am to take my written test.
We need to work on better distance learning systems, the companies that provide them could record the onsite class on provide it online, record once sell many times... ;)

"We need to work on better distance learning systems,"

I quite agree - that's why we used to use videoconferencing but we were stopped. So much for progress. The audio/video files were created for that purpose.

It doesn't matter about being signed off by a school - I can assure you that any material will be copied and sold within a day of it being on the market. It will be used by people in other schools to supplement their studies.

It's bad enough having to copy protect my pdf files (I hate it) but there are already copies of my books available on the internet, and there are people who will spend more to photocopy material than to just buy a proper copy. Weird. Aside from lasermarking each page, my only secret weapon is that the ones from my web site are always updated. As usual, the minority spoil it for people who want a genuine service. Why do you think Bristol et al copy protect their course materials?

As a point of interest, the overwhelming majority of our students like the paper notes. We only ever lost one to another school because they had CBT, but he came back later anyway.

Thanks for the answers, any other comments?
 

Well thx for the quick answers. But just to quote my case: I just paid 2800 € for my Special CPL Licence conversion (just an ATPL distance course), 150 € for DVDs for Meteorology (Nav not out yet, but same price for another 5 DVD's), sth like 650 € for ATPL books, and some other bill of study material of about 500 €. Now - I now how to get my bargains and have saved oodles of money (about 27 k € for 300 h tt, mostly statesides, FAA CPL ME/IR plus GPL in the UK, including 90 hrs ME and 35 hrs FNPT), but if I look at each flight hour's price and Paco's argument I just have to side with him. Paper or CBT - that depends on the quality of the material, I think - a mix might be even best from a didactical point of view.

But if I look at the amount of guys going modular, or just the ones that know they want to go integrated and try to get ahead with their studying I am sure there is some market there for the ones who commute or don`t live in a library, passionately. Especially, as Paco points out, since you need a sign off from a school for the exams. I am sure OAT makes some small but steady profit from their material. Maybe no comparison to King School or ASA in the States, but then again - if you already have it, if people buy aviation scanners for radio practise, why not sell a CD with core raw undispensible memory stuff for say 30 - 40 quid or €?

A complete course? That's debatable, perhaps; but the stuff you wanna pound into your brain? Formulas, rules of thumb etc.

Any other sources anyone here has heard of? Again, I have paid (see first paragraph) and would do so again, especially if there is some customer recommendation in some forum or marketplace such as Amazon.

Thanks for any thoughts!

we already publish the stuff that matters from our course notes as books so maybe we could do the same with audio. Who's the morethan freeman announcer? :) he's better than my voice!

Morgan Freeman.. why not:
 

SEAN CONNERY! Great voice, doesn't do that much acting anymore I think, a proud Scot who will appeal to any pilot, I think. Thoughts? (Ok, might be too expensive, but it might be a one-day-job to him).

Seriously!!! Why make it difficult!

A person goes to on campus ground school and listens to speaker XXX talk.
Record one full course and sell it online.
Provide distance learners with the possibility to view the material, they will benefit from it and you can charge more.

We did rewrite our notes for presentation purposes, but employing somebody of the stature of Sean Connery to read them would not be worthwhile for the market involved (I did them originally, and the sound files are clean and clear at least).

One of our instructors is a BBC announcer - watch this space..... :)

I don't have time to play around with apps and Apple's minefields.... :)

I remember David Hoy did something similar for the PPL a long time ago.