Re: JAR Compliant PPL vs JAA PPL - Difference?
"The JAR Compliant PPL is a FAA PPL with UK aviation law and RT procedures ground school and knowledge test."
That means you have a FAA PPL only. However, when you finally achieve 100 hours total time, you will also have covered some of the conversion requirements towards the JAR-FCL PPL. You will still need to take the JAR-FCL PPL(A) Skill Test, however, as well as the Human Performance exam which the flying school seems to have forgotten about.
I cannot find any reference to the validity period of the Air Law, Human Perfomrnace and Communications (PPL) exams in this context; normally you have to pass them all within an 18 month period and they will then be valid for 2 years for licence application.
So, if you think that you'll achieve 100 hours fairly quickly, then it might be worth paying the extra to do the FRTOL training and Air Law exams with that school, before (presumably) finding a JAR-FCL approved Flight Examiner to conduct your JAR-FCL PPL(A) Skill Test. And guess what, there happens to be one at that school....
To me it looks like a simple business opportunity - particularly for the Examiner, of course. Get a JAA Class 2 medical, then go to the US for a FAA PPL course. Then do the Air Law, Human Performance, Communications (PPL) and RT practical. Then top up to 100 hours, before taking the JAR-FCL PPL(A) Skill Test. In addition to paying for the FAA PPL, you would thus also be paying for:
1. 3 JAR-FCL PPL exams.
2. The FRTOL practical test.
3. Additional flight time to achieve 100 hours on aeroplanes.
4. The JAR-FCL PPL(A) Skill Test
If you wish to 'convert' with less than 100 hours, the difference is that you will additionally need both to take the other 4 JAR-FCL PPL exams and to meet the relevant JAR-FCL 1.125(b) experience requirements. These are:
'(b) Flight instruction. An applicant for a PPL(A) shall have completed on aeroplanes, having a certificate of airworthiness issued or accepted by a JAA Member State, at least 25 hours dual instruction and at least 10 hours of supervised solo flight time, including at least five hours of solo cross-country flight time with at least one cross-country flight of at least 270 km (150 NM), during which full stop landings at two aerodromes different from the aerodrome of departure shall be made. When the applicant has been credited for pilot-in-command flight time on other aircraft in accordance with JAR–FCL 1.120, the requirement for dual instruction on aeroplanes may be reduced to not less than 20 hours.'
If I were you, I would ask the flying school (and the CAA) to confirm whether the JAR-FCL 1.125(b) requirements can be carried out at the school to which you refer. If not, then you'll need obviously 100 hours on aeroplanes before you can convert.
But wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler just to do the FAA PPL in the US, then build up your hours wherever before doing the 3 exams, RT practical and JAR-FCL PPL(A)Skill Test when you're back in the UK?