Wow! Thanks for all the responses everyone. It has been very helpful.
Mazzy your concern about CAA not recognising approved JAA training sounds a little odd (there probably are a few cases)..... If it was commonplace I have no doubt this board would be filled by people saying not to go to the US for training. Maybe the instructor was feeding you some fluff so that the school gets the business?? Thats commonplace! i'm not trying to bag your friend btw!
Anyway a handful of bad experiences out of hundreds is not really much cause for concern.
I'm still planning on going to the US. To be quite frank the wx here is complete rubbish for CPL training. I have friends who had started their CPL stuff here and in the same time i've got my IR and MCC and had a good 5 weeks off in the meantime too. (I'm converting ICAO licences so any order is the go). I really cant be bothered wasting any time, and having to go through intermittant training trying to get the CPL.
Well after the majority of negative feedback concerning OFT i've decided on EFT. I know some guys that have gone there and had no major complaints. Naples are still waiting on the CAA to send their approval papers for CPL training so at this point in time they are a no go. Hopefully they will be able to start shortly.
Another reason to not go to OFT was that they never replied to my 3 inquiry emails....... so I guess they are doing great business and dont need any more from the likes of me........
Thanks again to everyone who has replied here and PM me!
Very much appreciated! (keep posting too if you have anything to contribute, i've made my decision but theres probably a few people who havn't that are reading this thread so any more opinions wouldnt hurt!)
I'll let u all know how it goes over there and what I thought of EFT.
All the best
PL