I was very lucky with the vast majority of my training.
After doing PPL, IMC and ME at Britannia Flight Centre in Bartow/Winter Haven, I did a PPL/IR groundschool with PPSC (under the guidance of the superb Roger Henshaw, who now heads up GTS in Bournemouth).
I never did the IR flight training, and instead went on to do ATPL groundschool many years later at BCFT. Apart from a few issues I had with some of the manuals (no school is perfect), I got on very well with the training and ended up with 1st time passes in all subjects, and an average of 95%.
Because I had already done an IMC, and had about 30-40 hours of IMC and ME time already, I reckoned that I should be able to get a credit on an IR course (otherwise 55 hours). No such luck mate, unless you've got a foreign IR to convert.
SO... I looked at getting a foreign IR, and then converting it, as a way of saving money. Because the FAA gave me credit on the IF and ME time I already had, I was able to basically do 'training as required' for an FAA IR.
HOWEVER... you can't add an FAA IR onto a single engine FAA Private (which I had), so I needed to take the FAA Multi Engine test (and therefore have a FAA ME licence) before I took the FAA ME IR flight test.
With me so far?
It was always my intention to do my IR with BCFT, so I chose a school where I could do an FAA IR at that would allow me to use the same aircraft as BCFT. I chose Riverside, and this turned out to be a very good decision.
I ended up doing a FAA CPL there as well, because the flight tests for the Private and Commercial Multi Engine are basically the same (except to tighter tolerances). The FAA CPL would then allow me to do 'training as required' when I went on to the CPL, thereby saving me MORE money.
So at Riverside, I did the FAA CPL and IR on the BE76. I converted the IR at BCFT, also on the BE76.
Adapting to UK airspace wasn't easy, but I was lucky enough to have a very good instructor for the JAA IR.
I did, however, go over-budget on the IR, and needed to cut back when I did the CPL. So I elected to do the CPL back in the USA at NAC for reasons of my own. This decision was one that I was repeatedly advised against, and one that I now regret.
I needed to get an MCC done pronto on my return, and I again turned to BCFT. However, there were no other students doing MCC at that time, and I had to do it elsewhere. I did my MCC at Oxford, and this was pretty damn good.
However good the training was, it still didn't land me a job, so I ended up doing an FIC earlier this year at East Midlands Flying School. Again, top quality training from Alan Cooper there and I secured a FI job almost immediately. A few months instructing, and I had over 700 hours. At which point, I was offered a job as Chief Pilot for my current employer.
Now that EVERYONE who has ever met me knows who WX Man is (who didn't before?!), I've got nowt to hide.
And your other question: conversion to UK airspace.
This was not easy. Although the training at Riverside was top quality, and Yuri (CFI) doesn't take any sh*t from his instructors, conversion to UK airspace is still a challenge. The biggest difference is in the test, because it involves going in and out of controlled airspace and filing a flight plan to reflect that. That's what I found most difficult (and it is, in fact, relatively simple compared to everything else on the IR test).
Sorry not to be brief, but I've got my reasons for making my choices- and hey, you did ask
