Flash,
IMHO, you’re right on the money there fella!! I've also flown at UKFT, Rainbow and HAI. Did the FAA system first PPL - CFII then did a PPL A and IR. Did the fixed wing licence just to get as much cross country time as possible and the IR as a cheap way of building real IMC hours (SPIFR).
I returned back home to JAR land and spent 4 months stuck on the terra firma jumping through the hoops.
I think most people will agree the JAA system is a little out of touch, especially when the syllabus is all fixed wing with only one helicopter exam. What is the point of calculating Great Circle Tracks over the North Atlantic, use of polar stereographic, lamberts and Mercator charts, calculating compressibility and mach speeds at FL300 etc etc....
However, there was some sort of saving grace! Most people (especially JAA trained) tend to think of the FAA system as a bit of a joke, get the book, learn the answers and a fresh CPL will be in the post!
I hold a JAA FI and FAA CFII so have flown and trained both syllabus and found there is no difference between the standard of flight training.
Anyway, I digress, having done the 141 program at HAI, the standard of knowledge you will need is way above the FAA requirements. During primary training and instruments, there are extremely difficult progress test to complete before you can move on to the next stage. At the time, when I was a student, I thought them to be pointless and a lot of useless knowledge, even when I became an instructor, students would ask me why they needed to know all this stuff, my answer, "because it's in the syllabus!"
On returning back to the UK I was dreading the all mighty JAA exams, but soon came to realise, a lot of it I already knew from the FAA 141 program. Mass and Balance = Weight and Balance, HPL = Air medical and CFI FOI's, met = met, ICOA law = ICAO law. Agreed the useless exams such as G-NAV and AGK were all new to me (AGK wasn't that bad as I used to be an electrical/mechanical engineer) but how did I get through these, by buying a book, learning the answers and waiting for the CPL to come in the post!
The point of my story is......(IMHO)
There is no difference in quality between an FAA or JAA pilot's flight skills (at the same level) FAA ground instruction concentrates on what you need to know, JAA concentrates on what you need to know and a lot of what you will never need to know or use but is put there to keep the idiots out.
Whether you choose to go JAA direct or FAA to JAA it all comes down to $$$$
I hope this thread continues and other pilots can give some advise to other newbies who are faced with difficult and expensive decisions to make. I'm sure it will be a great help to shared your experience.
LB
