6 weeks is about right for doing it in Florida at least, depending on what time of year you go. I went for 5 weeks and had a week spare at the end for some hour building - consequently, about 4 days lost to high winds (time to get exams done!) and we lost 2 days from Hurricane Wilma.
Anything under 4 weeks is silly as you just need one week scuppered by wx or tech issues and you're stuffed.
For Florida, the issue isn't so much weather, as wind - it can get a bit windy, and as a student pilot you'll need to adhere to the school crosswind limit which can leave you on the ground on an other wise beautiful day.
However, the US is a great place to train - compared with here they LOVE ga. Decent restaurants at most fields, no landing fees almost anywhere - get your instructor to add some major airports into the cross countries - nothing like landing at Daytona Intl at night in amongst the big boys.
When you get back here, do 3-4 hours to get familiar. If you've already got 4 hours under your belt you should have no problems. R/T differences are a non event - learn stuff like transiting zones/matz etc and how to open your cheque book. Also go up with an instructor when the weather is a bit crappy - again - provided it's not poor weather (when you probably should'nt be up there in the first place) - it won't take long to get familiar with life over here (and depending when you go to the US you might get it anyway - I flew in heavy rain, low cloud bases, misty conditions, but still above VFR minimums (just)! - not had anything dissimilar over here)).
For $2 to the £ you can't go wrong - especially if the airport you train at has high rental/tuition fees/landing fees.
Last edited by Slopey; 16th Nov 2007 at 09:16.