Hi there,
Well not sure what you are coming out to the US for.
Time building or a course of study, (FAA JAA training)
If it is time building I would guess that you can just turn up on your visa waiver. It will be reduced to whatever is left on the validty of your passport.
If you are coming on a course of study that will require an M-1 visa, this will be valid for the course of study plus 30days or one year which ever is less.
For the M-1 I think that the minimum validty of your passport is 6 months. If you are going to be staying longer you will have to have a longer validty in your passport.
To be quite honest, I would just pay the 33GBP at the post office get your passport renewed and not worry about it for another 10yrs.
Link to US visa London:
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web...v/nivindex.htm
Hope this helps
-273