Ok,
I might upset a few "dyed in the wool the USA is crap types", but what I would personally do ( and have done so!!
), is go to a JAA approved school in the USA and do you PPL. It will work out far cheaper, and don't belive all the nonsence you hear about the training being sub-standard, I went to Ormond Beach Aviation, ( agian, people will give differing opinions on this) and I had a superb instructor. I had the same instructor throughout my course, and a couple of others just for the odd hour to make sure everything was going ok
. After passing my skills test (3 weeks and 6 days!
) , I did 25 hrs extra in a C 150, and a couple of hours in a PA 28. And I still had change from £7000 after 6 weeks in the states, all my flying training paid for, a shiney new ANR headset, flights, food, beer, nights out etc...and came away with my PPL, night qual, RTF licence and 74.6 hrs in my logbook!!
IMHO the most important thing to learn in the PPL is good aircraft handling, good flight planning and Nav skills, and just getting comfortable in the air. - you don't need to pay £120 an hour in the uk for that, £40 in the USA is far more sensible!
The other good thing about OBA was the airfield was tower controlled in the day, (7am-7pm) and operated as an air/ground radio on a CTAF ( common traffic frequency) at night, so you got practice at flying in controlled and uncontrolled airfeilds, flying into major (Orlando
) airports, operating in very busy airspace and airfields ( 8-10 in the circuit at some points!!) I also got to land on short grass strips, got my night qualification as part of the PPL training and met loads of really good people.
And When you get back to the uk with your still wet ink PPL, go and do a block of hours learning the UK airspace and radio. You will STILL have saved money over doing a PPL in the UK, and doing it in one go gives you the most important thing over all others in my opinion, CONTINUITY. You eat, sleep, breath drink and fart flying for the duration of your course, and there are lots of people to knock heads with should you be finding any part of the course difficult.
I had a fantastic time and wouldn't change a thing, yes it is hard work and it is a training course not a holiday, but work hard play hard and you won't go far wrong
Hope this helps!!
