ATPL Distance Learning
 

Guys,
What are the best Distance Learning ATPL courses? I presume any course provides notes etc. In that case are the Jeppesen ATPL notes ( as seen in catalogues ) any use?
I plan to do the ATPL part time at home.
Thanks,
Carlito.

Been covered like you wouldn't believe !

For what it's worth, I rate Bristol. Others will say OATS and others will be different again. Horses for courses. Any good school will do the trick as long as you put the work in.

Carlito,

I was in the same position and chose Bristol. The package is pretty good and very competitively priced, though I'll reserve judgement until I've passed all the exams!

I'm Irish-based, so if you want to drop me a line and have a look at the Bristol material before choosing, feel free.

Gash

I'm also studying with Bristol, in addition to the above post, if you write to, e-mail or phone BGS asking for info, they'll send you a nice little intro pack with examples of their course notes, and a credit card sized CD which has a demo of their 'interactive' notes system. The CD also has various videos and animations to help explain some of the harder parts of the course, such as gyros.

Remember that after each of the two modules, you must do a two week revision course at whichever school you decide to go with.

Also worth doing a search for 'distance learning' or 'ATPL course'. You'll get opinions about all of the different schools.

I studied distance learning from Bristol - passed module 1 exams and currently doing module 2.

I can personally recommend them - I consider myself less than intelligent and the notes/course was superb preperation for the exams - I got a late 80's% average.

Distance learning studying is hard work and I looked at OATS and Bristol before deciding - the course structure with Bristol is very good and you get helpful telephone support if needed.

E-mail me directly if you want any further info.

Mark

Looks like Bristol is the PPRuNers' favourite.
Thanks guys,
Carlito

OK, I'll fly the flag for Oxford, seeing as I'm currently using them!

The Oxford notes are equally good. The support from the instructors is top notch!

I have a friend who's using Bristol at the moment and he borrowed one of the Oxford folders to study a particular subject that he was having trouble with.

His verdict was that the Bristol notes were easy to understand and that the Oxford notes for the same subject were easy to understand AND went into more detail.

Sometimes that can hinder you because you end up getting bogged down but equally it can help you really undertsand something.

Where Bristol have the CD to explain subjects graphically, Oxford use a website where you can download similar movable graphics.

As people have said before, it's horses for courses.

Another reason why people choose one of the two top schools over the other is due to the 2 week Brush up course that you have to attend. If you have friends/family closer to one of the schools that can have a influence.

Whichever one you choose, they'll get you through the exams!

I must say that Oxford's notes are very good for nearly all the subjects.

The 2 week brushup course however was excellent. The instructors kept subjects that you have already learned interesting and they were funny (mostly) and really prepared me for the exams.

However, like monkeyboy said, I would probably have chosen somewhere a bit nearer to home.
Living in Manchester however doesn't give you many options.

Doing the exams was a pain in the arse though as I had to go to either the south of england (200miles) or to Glasgow (200miles). Isn't there enough pilots from this neck of the woods to justify exam sittings in the North of England :mad:

Bristol vs. GTS
 

I've done the searches on this forum, Pilot, Flyer etc and sent for the information from a number of ATPL distance learning providers. Finally narrowed it down to two:

1. Bristol because I haven't been able to find a bad word about them and I was impressed by the info pack.

2. GTS - because it would be more convenient for the residential bits and because I gather that the instructors are ex-PPSC which also seemed very highly thought of before they went bust.

My question is does anyone have any first hand knowledge of the GTS course?

Thanks.

Who's GTS?

Monkeyboy,

Ask the 3 post strong G-Whiskey. Maybe he is connected in some way with GTS!!

Then some other 3 poster will place the URL....

;)

Cheers,

Laurie.

Just to put a spanner in the works -

ATA at Coventry have a good reputation!

GTS stands for Ground Training Services Ltd based at Bournemouth.

... and for the record I am not connected to them in any way, my profession, until I left to study for the ATPL exams was IT.