Hello there "The Stig"
I hope that I can give You a few pointers to help you on your way because i was in exactly the same boat as you a few years ago. I originally started on the Fixed wing route and went to the USA to do my PPL (A) and then went back 2 years later to do my PPL, CPL and my CFI (H).
I really wished that I could have trained here in the UK but The lovely CAA and the wonderfull Gorden Brown have seen to it that the UK is the most expensive and most restricted place on the planet to fly so your quest to go to the states is a vaid one.
I will try to answer your questions as much as possible if you u give me a PM and I will forward my phone number. In the mean time visit
http://www.ukft.com/ and have a look on that, most of your question will be answered anyway. They have a free phone number as well so give them a call and discuss what you want to know.
You will need at least 5 weeks to do the course and only then if you are a good student and learn at a good pace. 6 weeks would be better and 55 hours is the best course to buy. 45 Hours is cutting it close and the extra hours are always beneficial.
1 Uk flight training in California and Lancaster (
http://www.ukft.com/ ) Rainbow air Long beach California. HAI in Florida come with excellent feedback.
2 Florida....good but weather can be a factor. Flights cheaper and more available. California...weather excellant most of the time. Lots of places to go and fly to. Great beaches and Nice airfields.
3 You will meed and M1 Training visa. It will take about 6 weeks to get the interveiw and about 2 weeks for the visa to arrive. Not sure how much but was about £100 2 years ago. Look on the link to see more.
4 TSA is USA side and the school must be registered and you will neeed to go with an approved school. You will need to be finger printed when you get there and give details and photos. Its a Yank Kneejerk and a ballache but its got to be done.
5 If you can fly safely and know what to do, when, where and how then it doesnt matter where u fly from. I have flown with pilots on both licences and there good and bad ones on each one. The FAA licence is not as restrictive in some respects but it down to your own standards at the end of the day. You could fly with the best instructor at the best school with the tougghest examiner then go and fly like a w...er when u fly on your PPL.
The UK ATPL is supposed to be the best licence in the world with the hardest exams, I have done them and 90 percent of what is in them is completely useless in the real world. Does knowning a lot of useless figures and obscure information make you a better pilot? No i think not. Decent instruction and quality flying ,judgement ,talking to the operators ,mechanics, other pilots , and examiners makes you a better pilot. Unfortunately that comes from time and flying hours which costs and is therefore restrictive to gaining experience.
6 It depends on the place u rent from. I have UK and US licenses on both Fixed and Helicopter but I let my UK fixed lapse and I fly on my FAA (H) because my UK licence requires me to type rate on a R44 with the associated costs involved with it. You will have to see if your operater will accept the FAA licence but they have no right to refuse as it is reciprical under ICAO. I have not had any problems so far.
7 Convert by doing 100 hours flying,then take the UK Air Law and Human performance test do a skill test and you can apply for the UK licence. Its easy if you do the flying and read the books. You should read the book on Law if you intend to fly here anyway.
8 Flying is amazing and I cant get enough of it but I am poor and working 3 jobs to keep it up but grin every time I lift the collective!
Be aware that there is an awefull lot of snobbery and bitching on here. Dont take it to heart. The people who have had to pay for there training with savings and selling their houses, cars mothers and souls etc can afford to fly the Robbies (R22) and hope to move up one day,The EX mil and "others" who were very lucky with their training and fly turbines and lovely machines like that look down their noses and bitch about how unsafe some helicopters are etc. Its a risk we all have to accept if we want to fly in this country and one day "we" will replace them at the sticks of the "Safe" helicopters.
Take your time to look through as many posts as possible on here. It will take you a long time as there is much info. It will also lift you up to want to do more when u look at some of the pictures of real helicopters doing the real jobs in the reral places.
Hope this helps and feel free to message me if you want my number to discuss further.
Going to get behind the sand bags and await the fallout from some of my comments now!
Flash!