Hi there again,
For people who are more interested in the cost of their training than which renowned school they go to in Europe, I would recommend doing their training at a good school in the US or Canada.
Now this would be a little run down of going about it:
Find the area that you would like to go to, maybe Florida maybe somewhere else. Myself personally I went to Moncton in Canada and then to a school in the US.
You will have to read between the lines and also I would recommend talking to former international students to see what you will need to do with visas and actual costs. If the school is any good they will be able to put you in touch with people from your country so that you can see what they had to do.
Make sure that you have about 30% more funds than quoted as it is always embaressing running out of money during training.
Get the correct visa and make sure that the school offers it. For the US you will want a J-1 visa, the work options on an M-1 are limited to none. Canada you will need a student visa and then the company will attempt to sponsor you afterwards, this is not guarenteed so I would recommned the US as the J-1 will allow you to look for work at another flight school if the one where you did your training has no room for you at the time.
Make sure that you do some pre-reading on what you will be doing, if you can get the books start reading them before you go.
Moncton for example sent me their text book 2 months before I went. I read it twice before I arrived and felt that I had a head start. You can then always underline the stuff you dont know and when in ground school ask what it is.
If you are looking to build hours the best bet would be to go to the USA. Get all your ratings and your CFI/CFII/MEI then try to get all the hours for the ATPL take the ATPL and then come back to Europe.
By having a full ATPL you will be exempt from formal ground school and will be able to sign up for a distance learning course and then take the exams when you feel free. On the flying side you will be able to get an hour reduction from the head of training so that you will not have to do the 25hrs for the Commercial skills test and you will also be allowed to do 15hrs for the IR (10hrs in an Fnpt2 and 5hrs aircraft) it may take longer than this.
You could also if you are clever go to a school in the US or Canada that does JAA and do the 2 systems at the same time and then return to do the VFR portion of your flying, once you have completed your exams. If you are not interested in building hours then just go to Moncton in Canada get your Canadian and JAA commercials and return to Europe to get the IR.
You could if you were really brave do the distance learning whilst working as an instructor, but I think that you would be hard pushed to do this. You could always just get the books and read through them.
You will then have to do an MCC course on completion of your JAA IR and that will be it.
So for a quick re-cap:
Find area you want to go to: US/Canada etc etc
Obtain funds 130%
Speak to former students from your country
Get correct Visa (US J-1)
Get study material
Get all licences (US CFI/CFII/MEI)
Work as hard as you can to get FAA or Canadian ATPL
Try to get as much multi time as you can
Complete JAA exams
Return to US/Canada to do VFR portion of flying
Return to Europe to do IR and MCC
Anyways I am sure that I have left something out
By doing it this method you will save yourself 50%, have 2 ATPLs at the end. Have had fun flying somewhere where they treat GA like normal people.
You will also be paid for flying, so if you are fruggal with money you will walk away with some money saved, have had more command experience than the guys and girls you are competing for jobs with back in the Europe. Have more hours by far than the guys and girls you are competing with and in general be better a pilot and be better off.
Just remember when you are in JAA land dont say well this is how we do it in the FAA/Canada, and vice versa.
I used to have students that came from JAA to the FAA and we spent the first 5hrs going round in circles, which ever country your in you fly their system. This is not such a problem for IFR, more mainly for VFR.
Anyways hope this helps somebody
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