Interesting thread!
I have just returned from the same school that quackers seems to be complaining about.
I did 30 hours training on the Duchess in the states for $265 an hour, so we are looking at 30 x 135 = 4050 pounds.
I then returned to the UK and took a further 27 hours to reach the standard. The UK section cost me just over 5000 pounds. This was 10 hours sim and 17 in the aircraft.
So the total was just over 9000 pounds. A very reasonable price for 47 hours twin and 10 FNPT2.
All that said I found on returning to the UK that the lack of any usefull NDB training was a real hindrance and caused me at least 3 hours of extra training, also the difference in procedures and checks used by the different schools (despite the two schools having a training agreement!) meant at least 2 hours extra training to unlearn one set of procedures and learn another. The other 2 extra hours I can only imagine was due to my arse weight on switch or my need to breath and fly at the same time slowing me down!
I am happy with the decision I made but only for financial reasons. Some people will cope better with the differences than others and some people have the cash not to worry about where to train in the first place!
I have thankfully now finished my training and with some training in the SA and some in Florida and the rest in the UK I am happy with the end result -
A frozen ATPL with 295 hours total including 82 hours complex single and 66 hours Multi all for less than 30 grand with some great memories(and some !!!!ty ones)
Would I do the same again and use the same schools? Yes I would!
If you would like a list of the schools I used send me a PM.