rudestuff - Whilst I follow some of your logic, wouldn't you agree, that with so many FAA schools which have very low training standards, going to a school that has dual qualified instructors (FAA & UK/EASA) would prepare the student far better for the final conversion back in UK or Europe?
Some US schools just have the FAA instructor who has undertaken the so called FCL.900(c) conversion, certainly not the same, in my opinion, as a fully fledged UK or EASA CPL/IR FI. So my point is simple, chose, if possible, to train with a fully qualified UK/EASA instructor in the USA who has the FAA qualification and take all the benefits of the FAA courses taught with a European emphasis so the conversion is a breeze! Be interested to know if you agree with this?
I agree with you on cost, don't pay a ridiculously high price for this advantage, but it must be worth worth paying something more to get an instructor who is qualified in both systems and knows the differences?
Final point, 30 years ago, before UK approved training in the USA was available, many returned from the US with their fresh FAA license and spent a fortune converting simply because they were not trained to a good standard, particularly on the IR. I actually was involved in a school that made a lot of money doing those conversions 30 years ago when the expected 5 hours became 25 hrs! Then we had 25 plus years of having approved UK/EASA ATO's in the USA and a major assault by the UK/EASA schools saying loudly, people should train in Europe if they want to fly Europe - what poppycock of course, as most people train in the US anyway. Today, students, if they do the right research, could have the best of both, but as I said in my last post, they have to do the proper research and not be blinded by the BS and hype especially from the schools with large marketing budgets!
The smaller modular schools seem not to have the marketing budgets to compete, probably because they only charge half as much for the same course, so it becomes the vicious circle..... looking forward to hearing your thoughts!