Atpl Oxford
Author Metcalfe
During my PPL(A), and afterwards, I reviewed a lot of articles in forums and checked a lot of websites, ATPL school websites as well, in order to know which books serie to choose. At the end, my choice went with no hesitation to get the CAE Oxford Aviation School books, as it really seems to be the most complete books on the market today and this school is also one of the best Aviation schools in the world.
I know also that other books and schools are more exam oriented and will provide less information in order to focus only on one thing : getting your theory exams in pocket. And also the negative point often mentioned about Oxford books is that there are very complete but with too much information that you need to get through the ATPL Theory exams. I understand this, but also, I think that the most important for me is not to get the exam only but also to really inderstand what I learn and be knowledgeable about aviation things I should know as a good professional pilot.
In fact before buying all the Oxford books serie, I had a review of different books : I bought online oxford Meteorology book (pdf version is less expensive), the same (Meteorology) in PadPilot and in CATS Aviation (paper), just to compare. Then here is also my choice going to Oxford, but I recognise that PadPilot iBooks are very very user friendly, clear, well presented and then very useful also. I just did not like very much the CATS aviation books presentation and it seems there is not too much data inside, but I guess it is far enough to pass the exam.
So now, with these information, just make your own advice : if you want deep knowledge, knowing that yout study may be more complex, then go Oxford ; if you want very well presented and user friendly books (and complete as well) then go Pad Pilot and if you want more synthetic and powerpoint style books then go CATS aviation.
A last advise : if you wish to buy a full books serie, do not buy it new and pay the full price, find a good opportunity with used (still in very good state) books. I bought my books in ebay from a guy who has just finished his ATPL study in CAE Oxford school and then I got the full books + CAE Oxfords notes, for a very good half price of the new ones !
This time there was no English test at all and a one exam paper that contained a 40-multiple choice questions, split into 20 math questions and 20 physics questions. This time as well I managed to get my hands on the actual exam papers: As you can see this exam was composed of one common paper between maths and physics and contained a total of 40 questions each of which worth one point. Everyone who scored 12 and more was summoned for the next step which is the Oxford Aviation Academy test.
The Interview was done at the Hilton hotel Algiers as well but this time it was face to face. For me , my interviewers were a lady named Deborah Gaine and a gentleman named Brian Field you can look them both up on LinkedIn. The interview was divided into two sections the first one was about technical knowledge and motivation and the second one was about leadership and teamwork which are both obviously very important aspects to look for in a future airline pilot.
For the second part, it was more or less about leadership and teamwork experiences that I had in my life which by the way was not that much up to that moment so I only told them about a couple of school projects and volunteering work that I did just to avoid being silent during the interview.
Let us assume that there are five houses of different colours next to each other on the same road. In each house lives a man of a different nationality. Every man has his favourite drink, his favourite brand of cigarettes, and keeps pets of a kind.
The exercise was done in a team of 6 members each one of us had 3 hypotheses and was instructed not to show them to the other members of the team until the test starts. We had 20 minutes to try and solve the problem (the goal obviously was not to solve the problem but to work together in a methodical way to get as close as possible to solving the it).
The test was done at LSA school (Language Solutions Algeria) in Algiers which at that time was the only language school certified to do the test in the whole of Algeria. Before we took the test, we got a 3-day preparation period where a teacher at the school taught us all there is to know about the test and how to pass it successfully. the test was done on the 30th May 2015 and we got the results back on the 21st June 2015, in case you were wondering i scored 6.5 on the test which was not awesome per se but it was enough.
The last part before departing towards Oxford to start the training was applying for the UK visa which was without surprises and like any other visa the only thing that one needs is to have the Oxford Aviation Academy acceptance letter (CAS) sent to him by the academy which is a letter that certifies that one has been accepted as a student there in order for him to complete the documents needed to get the student visa which lasts for 2 years for my case but as I understand now the law has been changed so when one applies he will get a visa stamped on his passport that lasts for only one month and when he gets to oxford he has to go the post office located in the city centre to collect his BRP which stands for (British Residence Permit) which is like and ID card that he can carry with him all the time rather than carrying his passport but when one needs to cross the borders he has to have both the BRP and the passport obviously.
Probably the part that all pilots hate, because in it the pilot gets back to class with 14 books (that weigh more than 20 Kgs when put together) to study in about only 6 months (2 phases: 12 weeks for the first one and 9 weeks for the second one).
The maximum number of retakes is 4 in one subject and 6 in any subject. If one fails to get 75% after he consumes all his re-sits all his record gets wiped out and he must restart from zero which usually means he will get expelled either by the school or by the company if he is sponsored.
The flight phase is divided into 2 parts one is done at Phoenix Arizona where one will learn how to fly a general aviation airplane from scratch. And the other one is done at Oxford where one will learn advanced instrument flying to get the Instrument Rating which I will explain next.
Note: from PT1 to PT4 the student will learn how to fly a single piston engine aircraft which is the Piper Archer (PA28-181), after PT4 the student will learn how to fly a twin piston engine aircraft which is the Piper Seminole (PA44-180).
When every student arrives at the academy in Arizona he will have to attend a week of class held session where some instructors will explain everything there is to know before starting the learning how to fly process (the airspaces around Falcon Field airport especially the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport class Bravo airspace and many other things).
Exactly after the progress test 1 is passed successfully the student will fly his first solo which is the most important flight in the life of every pilot because he gets to see himself completely in command without anyone helping him doing it.
Then the second part of the flying phase starts which is learning how to navigate from a point to point without getting lost, during this part also the student will learn some emergency procedures like engine failure handling both in flight and after take-off and engine fire.
The CPL is quite a long test (2.2 hours of flying with an examiner) done on board a twin engine aircraft where a lot of exercises are demonstrated by the student for the examiner like navigation, general handling (including stalls, steep turns and basic instrument flying), circuits, single engine flying, approaches and landing. Unlike the other progress tests this one is only done with a certified examiner.
After getting the CPL, the student will go back to the UK to start the advanced instrument flying in which he will learn all about flying under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and its particularities. At the end of this part the student will be awarded a frozen ATPL which means he can join an Airline but his airline cannot promote him to be a captain until he accumulates 1500 of flying hours built on the hours he already has during his training. But before that there is one last part of training that he needs to do before going home which the MCC.
MCC stands for Multi Crew Coordination which as its name indicates aims to train students on how pilots work in teams because up to now the trainees learned how to fly small airplanes by themselves without having any help, but now that they are going to be flying big jets that need at least 2 pilots to be flown they need to really learn how to work in teams to ensure the best possible outcome that will ensure the safe conduct of the flight for the comfort of the passengers and the benefit of the company. For the MCC part students have to complete 40 hours on board of a Full Flight Simulator (FFS) which for me was a Boeing 737-400 FFS.
The end of this part will mark the end of the training at Oxford Aviation Academy and the student is ready to join an airline if he is self-sponsored or to join his airline if he is already sponsored like I was.
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