Thanks again Charlie,
The practical training "as required" is an interesting situatiuon.
Having spoken to a few schools it seems that you may be exempt from a certain amount of hours(i.e. if you have night flying already, they will take 5 off). One person at a school told me to call the CAA to find out exactly how many hours practical training you are exempt for getting the CPL(H). The CAA told me today that it is entirely up to the school to decide how many hours you need for the CPL(H). As you said, dictated by the school's head of training. This kinda puts you in strange situation, as one could say if I school felt they werent getting enough income they might tell you, you need the full 30 hours training, costing you quite a bit. Or you might find a school saying that you only need 10 hours of training, costing you a substantial amount less.
I know this situation is cirumstancial, but it doesnt seem to be a very logical system. Requires putting a lot of faith in the school and trusting them. I suppose as we have always done when it comes to training, and being told how much money we have to spend. So I wont go on about that. But I do believe it is a particular area the JAA/CAA need to be a little more definitive about.
I also learned today from a Atlantic Flight Training Ltd, that if you just do the JAA CPL(H) route, and do the 9 exams, then later on if you decide to do the ATPL(H), for whatever reason, you have to go back and do all 14 (or 13, as different schools keep telling me differently, even though I believe you are correct Charlie) exams from the start. Which puts me back into the predicament of wondering what the chances of getting an ATP job are.
Anyhow, I think after all my reading and talking to people, I will do the ATPL(H) course and go from there, at least it might look good on my CV.
Also, thanks for the heads up on the medical issue Charlie. When I booked it earlier on in the week, I told the woman that I was already a rated pilot, and she said then I only had to pay £250 for th initial Class 1, instead of £422. Nice pocket change saver there!
Out of interest, would anyone be able to tell me what other jobs, other than offshore, would you need and ATPL(H) license for? As is my understanding, in Europe, under the JAR's, you can't get an instrument license on a commercial license. So that would lead me to assume that any job that requires you to fly an instrument ship in IFR conditions, would mean you have to have and ATPL(H) for that job.
Thanks again.