Alright, Im from Europe and i had to go through the whole ATPL process back in 2001, went through the whole ATPL groundschool and all the exams. I had decided to go to an english school in the US to do my JAA IR and CPL afterwards but ended up actually meeting a girl from the US that i got married to so i moved to the US and gave up the JAA system to create a life with her in the US, not because i really wanted to fly in the US now i just waisted a whole lot of money but because she wanted to live there....
So i started my FAA training and was hoping that my JAA ATPL training would help me alot, just to find out that i really just waisted my time with the JAA...... WHY??? ok heres why!!!
You sit in a ATPL class after you complete you PPL, now you go through alot of stuff that you have never been in contact with, Ok you go through stuff for your PPL but no where near what the ATP contains, and it is for many people hard to learn something when you are not able to apply it in pratice i mean you sit and learn alot of stuff about instruments navigation and so on and you are not able to use it before you finish all your exams and start the reminder of your training.... You try to cramp alot of stuff in in a small amount of time and most students and dont say otherwise end up sitting in the end before the exams and try to learn all the feedback questions that other students have given the school, because thats the only way for them to pass.... and when they then finish, it takes about a day or 2 before most of what you learnd is forgotten......
How many can honestly say that they remember alot from their ATPL 1 year later, atleast i can be honest and say that i dont remember much.....
Anyway, i started my FAA training and wasent able to use much of my JAA ATPL in that and finished my IR CPL CFI/CFII and started working my ass off as a flight instructor making next to nothing, but hey im not gonna complain...
After 2 years in the US my wife decided to run off with another guy so here i was stuck in the US for no reason and didnt really want to stay cos all of my family is back in Europe, but hey i just spend all my money on FAA licence instead of JAA and my ATPL didnt work anymore so i would have to stay in the US try to get a job or go back to Europe and do the whole ATPL again and yes i did talk to the CAA no way around it and then spend alot of extra money so i decided to stay and got a job flying LEAR JETS as an F/O good job good pay so i couldnt complain.....
I was in the US until september where i applied for a job in the middle east and actually got it so i moved.... and currently fly Lears here in the middle east........
Could i have done everything different YES would it have made me a better pilot, WHO KNOWS, did the JAA ATPL make me a better pilot NO.... would it have made me a better pilot if i had done the rest of my training JAA? NO.
What made me the pilot i am today is Experience, NOT 14 exams that i forgot within a year anyway!!! FAA OR JAA licence wouldnt have made a difference, flying is the same do i fly in europe or US its the same that applies rules might be different but at the end of the day Flying is flying....
I actually like the US way MUCH better then in Europe...The keyword in the US is experience, without min 1200 hours of flying you wont even be able to get a real job which is GOOD cos hopefylly you learn something in that time, where in Europe if you know the right people you can end up in a 737 with 250 hours which is SCARRRYYYYY no real life experience but oh well people can kill me now lol
In my mind the way CAA should do the training would be same way as the USA and ok they wont ever get rid of the JAA ATPL but why not give the kid a chance to learn and get experience before you kill his spirit with all this crap....how many havent i seen give up flying after the PPL, because the ATPL got to much of them...... There aint no Joy of flyin the whole year you do the ATPL and the whole reason why we do this job is because we love FLYING......
Why dont you go do your PPL your instrument and you Commercial....you wont use the atpl anyway really for that, and then go get a job get experience flying learn it and love it be a flight instructor or be lucky go get a job flying 737 and then say the ATPL is a requirement for you to be able to opgrade as a captain or something.... That would be the way of doing things right, and i tell you its a whole lot easier to do the ATPL when you got and idea about what flying is about....
Im sitting for the fun of it now once in a while with all those ATPL feedback questions and im actually able to answer them now because of what i have been doing and what i have learnd flying.....
And my situation again, i wont get a job in Europe unless i spend a whole lot of money converting my licence and take the ATPL again.... will it make me a better pilot????? is it gonna be any difference for me flying lears for a company in UK then it is here..... if so let me know cos im flying all around europe right now so if there is something i dont know i really like to know about it lol......
So would it be an idea to accept FAA licence and experience with the CAA i would hope so...not that i would go anyway lol pay is way better here anyway lol
And finally thet guy saying that europe would be full of american pilots with FAA licence HAAA no way.....more jobs and MUCH better in the US, only reason that i moved was to be closer to my family....why would they move to europe away from their family for a job that prob wont even pay half of what they would make in the US and there is WAY more jobs there anyway......
Anyway you can all kill me now if you think all i said is CRAP
