I went to OBA in June 06 to get my PPL. I always only ever had 17 days to do it in and after speaking to AT on the phone and a few emails, I believed that I could do it. I did ALL the PPL exams before I went and I would recommend that to anyone. At least study for them before you go out there!
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and met some interesting people. Although 17 days is not a lot of time, my instructor was fantastic and I got the PPL (inc. night rating) in 45.0 hours and the 17 days (despite losing 2 days to bad weather - hurricane season and all). Did my flight test 2 days before I was due to fly home, so the last day was just spent making up the additional hours to get to 45.
Back in England I went to my local flying club, did a check ride (as any club would require of new members) of about 45 minutes with an instructor (stalls, circuits, PFLs etc) and was told that I was good to go. No retraining or extra training required AT ALL. They were very happy with my training and said I could hire an aircraft anytime I liked (which I have done since then!).
The RT is of course a bit different - and I can see that some people might find this challenging when they get back to England, but you soon get used to it. I suppose it helps being an air traffic controller.
Cheers
p.
