Re: Help with decision on converting FAA IR in UK or in Spain??
Depends what you mean by "In Spain". Some outfits are quite good, others fairly awful. Guy I know had a NIGHTMARE time in Spain (instructors who barely spoke English was a major issue). He gave up halfway through and went to a school in the UK. There he realized both the airspace and CAA examiners were a different beast and he ended up spending a fortune with failed 170As and retraining.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some Spanish schools are fine. Do the research.
I also had not flown IR (FAA) for 3 years when I started my JAA IR training. The combination of being rusty, the MEP side of things and the airspace made it pretty challenging. But your 30 hours estimate is probably about right. I would thing twice about the UK "big" schools if yoiu're going to do an ad hoc transition training. From what I've seen, they find IR conversion students a nuisance because they like to have students paired up and following a strict curriculum (i.e. IR50 or IR55). You'll end up with a different instructor on every flight, which is not going to help. Sorry to sound a bit gloomy!
This is what I did: I signed up for IR50 (which means I had the same instructor the whole way) and after 40 hours I told them I was ready (could have stopped a bit earlier but I wanted to pass first time). The gave me the money back for the remaining 10 hours.
P