As a UK PPL I had considered going down the road of an FAA IR as I really did not think I would be capable of or @rsed with doing all the UK CAA theory/ground school/exams and then all the 50 hours flight training.
I had even found a UK FAA training school to do most of the practical with and then was going to nip over to the US to finish it off. This seemed all within my comfort zone and I was then going to put my G reg a/c onto the N reg and it was all good.
I then heard about and met with a bunch of other like minded PPLs via the Flyer Forum and teamed up with them to go the UK CAA PPL/IR route and have recently qualified (I think there are around 6 or 7 of us that have finished so far).
The theory is easily doable by distance learning (used CATS who have an excellent on-line study guide and question bank) and only a couple of days classroom was required in total, all 7 exams were easily passed in a
couple of sittings. It was really no big deal!
I then went on to do the practical in my own a/c and enjoyed (most of it) immensly!
Don't dismiss the CAA route as impractical, it may be a slightly dearer option but I'm 52 years old, self employed and busy - believe me that if I can do it anyone can!!!
