JJ - yes, I agree with you. That 'Johnny Foreigner Job Thieves' thing is pretty unsavoury. At the risk of causing further offence, yesterday I conducted a PPL Skill Test. Most went OK. but the guy's navigation wasn't good enough. I have to say that it was the 'applicant' himself who confided that he hadn't really been taught much about navigation..........at an 'instant pilot' school in the USofA. I blame my own instructors for not getting him up to speed to some extent - but why oh why wasn't he taught properly over there. As JJ says - we can't generalise as there MUST be some places in the US producing excellent pilots, surely??