IO540
I'm afraid I have to call you on the FAA PPL exam/flight test, and comment on the IR (I never did the latter, so can go no further). I did the FAA PPL when I was 19 and did not have a huge amount to do to get a good pass in the exam, and I passed the flight test well despite not thinking I had flown to my own standards. I did the JAA PPL exams when I had a lot more experience (180 hours fixed-wing, 150 rotary+sim time), and brushed up to do it, and subsequently I have done a lot of classroom teaching for it. It was a lot harder than FAA, and correctly studied (i.e. not just using the confuser to direct the study) it contained everything covered by the FAA exam, including instrument navigation which makes up 20% of the Nav exam.
I have been a flight instructor, and any of my students would pass the FAA PPL flight test. They might be confused by the figure 8, but they'd do it to a high enough standard and that is a pointless exercise if ever I saw one!
On the IR, I have a friend who is an IRI here but also has an FAA ATP. He compares the overall FAA IR (which he had on a CPL before his ATP) with an IMC rating (which he has been teaching for years). I cannot say anything in detail about the exam as I have not taken or taught either. I agree you'd have to study because the law is different and I assume the exam has some extra content, but flying is basically the same anywhere otherwise!
I also agree that there should be a more accessible PPL IR here, perhaps based on a broadening of the IMC. However the airspace that most would then want to use that they can't with an IMC is getting crowded - it's where I do most of my flying.
Fuji
One of my plans when the company I taught groundschool for went bust was to ask teh CAA for sponsorship to do a PhD on JAA groundschool training. A study of that detail is required.