If one is going to do the FAA PPL then I would recommend Arizona or similar, because the weather risk is practically zero. I did my IR there. They get 363 flying days a year.
I think the "UK weather" bit is overdone. If you are VFR-only then you cannot go into cloud legally, and if you don't have instrument skills you must not go into cloud at all. So, this means that while flying around Arizona you might cancel 0.5% of flights, and in the UK you might cancel 50% to 75% of flights - on the simple basis of actual or forecast weather. The flying itself is just the same!
The radio is different. U.S. radio tends to be rather more casual which is OK once you work it out. There are a few important differences but they are easy enough to pick up. The biggest one is that U.S. Class D can be entered on the basis of a radio contact, whereas European Class D needs an explicit clearance (and UK treats it like Class B, while France treats it pretty informally in most places).
Then, especially once you have 100 hours, you can convert the FAA PPL to a JAA PPL, by sitting (I vaguely recall) 2 or 3 of the JAA exams, and a checkride. Then you have two separate licenses. The FAA one lasts for life and only the FAA can take it away.
The TSA and Visa process is a hassle but I have a checklist - email me if you want a copy.
Despite the EASA moves etc I would still do the FAA PPL in the USA, and use the money saved to get currency over here. Currency is what it is all about - no good getting the piece of paper and not flying. After a few months of not flying you will be useless. Then one can get the JAA PPL.
Currently, you can fly a G-reg on any ICAO PPL, worldwide VFR.
I paid £8.5k for my JAA PPL in 2000 (65 hrs - about average for age 43) and today it would be more like £10k. In the USA it would be about £4k plus a cheap motel and food and airline tickets, which is not a vast saving IF one is actually going to fly afterwards (as Gertrude says) but the key aspect is that if you go to Arizona you can knock off the whole lot without wasting time. The equivalent UK-based project would be to set up camp near an airfield and fly every day, but unless you get very lucky you will still get a load of cancellations and it will take several months, which is not acceptable for a full time project unless one is unemployed and a loner. Done conventionally (slotting lessons between "life" and job) a PPL takes around 1 year over here, and much of the training is wasted due to breaks.
I know a few people who have spent £20k and still didn't get there, but in those cases it was either someone (who could not fly and was just doing it for the fun) or there was a large element of instructor dishonesty (deliberately knocking a female customer' confidence at regular intervals so as to get more money out of them). In the latter case, the worst practitioner I saw vanished without trace after doing this for a few years.
Last edited by IO540; 25th Aug 2008 at 08:32.