Ir Training In Florida - A Warning!
Before spending your hard-earned money (or parents/relations, banks!) I would like to offer a cautionary tale based on my experience. Having completed the CPL/ME at an 'Approved' JAA school in Florida, plus 30 hours IR 'training', I came back to the UK to complete said IR - Oh, what a shock!! A lot of the things I had been taught over there were badly taught whilst other things hadn't been taught at all! This resulted in my spending a fortune in extra hours to put matters right. Although I now have an IR, I was told by my examiner that certain aspects of my instrument flying were weak and, in his experienced opinion, this was mainly down to poor initial training. The extra training I had to do negated any savings (plus more) I had made by going to America.
Those early hours of IR training should not be underestimated - don't base your choice of school on cost alone. It is far more important that you are taught properly, by a suitably JAA Licensed
instructor. Before going to the USA find out who your instructor is going to be and make sure that he/she holds a proper JAA IR Instructors Licence NOT an FAA one, with authority to teach to JAA standard (like my instructor!). In addition, has he/she ever taught IR in the UK - this is very important as there are some big differences between us (airspace restrictions, radio procedures, types of approaches etc). Don't be fobbed off with a less-qualified instructor once over there (as often happens).
In hindsight (what a wonderful thing!!) I wish I had done all of my IR training in the UK, where the regulation of instructors is more tightly policed and where, after all, I will be working. I have since spoken to a CAA official and was told that they cannot afford to send staff around the world checking out these 'approved' schools. The CAA receive a vast amount of money from us future pilots so, surely, they owe us a duty of care!
Its too late for me to recoup any of the money I have spent but I would urge all wannabees to think very carefully before committing themselves. If you do decide on sunny Florida - check them out very, very carefully. After all, after buying a house, this is probably the most expensive thing you will ever buy!!
I am not going to name the school concerned for obvious reasons, but my advice applies to whichever school you are considering outside of the UK. Best of luck to you all!