Why not give the name of the school to get better response? I imagine there will be quite a few readers who are based in the US that may well know which FTO is and give you better feedback.
I haven't gone through the US system but here are my thoughts anyway (in no particular order and probably would cover just about any FTO you wanted to go through):-
1) are you guaranteed the instructor hours? How many students do they have at any time? You will need to check out the FAA rules about what and who an instructor can teach. Remembering of course that you presumably won't be able to teach multi engine students until you have the rating which will be when on the course timeline?
2) have you reviewed a copy of the training contract? Is there one? If so is point 1 adequately dealt with?
3) what happens if you fail a part of the course adn need to retake or it takes you longer to do a particular portion? have you factored in what sort of costs this might entail? I have heard that some FTO's set unrealistically high standards which preclude you from getting accepted as an instructor and therefore all you get is the training component which is generally at a higher price than what you could have gotten it elsewhere
4) multi hours are clearly of more value than single. Any guarantees of how many of those you will get from instructing eg: could be zero or there could be a hierachial structure of getting them where the local boys get preference etc.
5) what are the acceptance procedures for their internship? are there any or is it a matter of showing them the money? My guess would be it is automatic acceptance. So why pay £5,000 up front?
6) who is responsible for paying the JAA school for the PPL? You wouldn't want to be left in the position of said UK school partly training you and then finding out that US school decided not to show them the money. Happened before with lots of nasty things like arguments over release of training records etc so you can continue elsewhere.
7) on looking at your payment schedule I would be renegotiating it. to much risk involved in paying that way. Tell them that you will pay a week in advance via credit card instead and see if they are still keen for your business. if not ask them why a properly run school needs all the cash up front or are you just providing them with cashflow to keep them in business
8) what do you know about the quality of their training? can you talk to past students? failure rates? can you talk to present instructors and see what sort of hours they are getting? also mix between single and multi engine time.
9) are they registered on the CAA website for providing JAA training? If they are going through another UK registered FTO then what do you know about them and can you be sure that the relationship won't be terminated part way through thus leaving you high and dry in the US?
10) do you know the rules about recording of flight time and the difference between JAA and FAA. If not check them out and work out how many "valid hours" you will get in your JAA logbook - assuming you propose to work in the UK/Europe that is.
11) there have been some concerns raised in the past about the quality of training for the JAA IR in the US. As you probably know the IR test must be conducted back in Europe and some students have been failing and hence incurring significant retraining costs. Have you checked out this aspect? Talked to students who have passed the IR and gotten any feedback on the quality of the training you are likely to get?
12) the quality of ATPL groundschool can vary. Have you seen any examples of the notes/cd's etc? Are they using someone like BGS?
13) on a more personal level, how much extra cash do you have budgeted? There will always be additional costs that you don't budget for. Generally the books and materials included will be the minimum to get by and you will want to supplement it. Most of us doing our ATPL's tend to buy for example additional study materials. Perhaps OAT's MET or the Rolls Royce book on jet engines as just 2 examples. Some people have book shelves full of additional reading material. Each to their own! Other things that spring to mind eg:bike or car to and from school, personal insurances (in the air and for belongings), will you be happy with presumably the shared accomodation that the school provides or are you fussy? In which case upgrade and pay more.
In summary looks like the usual US training deal you read about on here. You are effectively paying a premium for training than what a US citizen would and then working possibly at a reduced rate. The school has you over a barrel though as you need the JAA CPL and IR which are always back end loaded on these courses. Take some time to call up or surf your average US FTO and see what they charge for each of the components for the FAA training and then factor in the conversions to JAA and see if it is such a good deal.
Finally ask yourself a question. If you wanted to leave at any point during the course for whatever reason, would you be able to without and financial loss. If the answer is no then .......good luck.
Hope the rambling helps a bit. Let us know how you get on.
Last edited by daw; 8th October 2004 at 11:08.