The FAA v. JAA IR picture has shifted in recent years.
The Visa/TSA issues have brought new overheads which waste time and reduce certain training options.
Since JAA came in c. 2000, when there was no
PPL/IR ground school and one had to do the whole 14 ATP exams, things have firmed up and now there are 7 exams.
Then one has had variously "colourful" UK checkride options, over the years, as indicated by posts above.
The JAA question bank has been published which makes a big difference and enables one to go for the lot and re-revise and re-sit the failed ones.
Highly significant differences however remain in favour of the FAA route - as per my post earlier on. However,
most of these disappear if you are not an aircraft owner, or it you are flying something very basic.
I absolutely do not accept the FAA IR is not good enough for Europe. I had 2 weeks of solid exhausting flying, partial panel with timed turns and every approach to minima. Anybody saying the FAA IR is not good enough is talking straight out of their ar*e.
Neither the FAA nor the JAA IR teach a lot of operational knowledge for the European IFR environment, and that remains a concern. It's a situation which is never likely to be addressed by the training scene and is left to mentoring, and the internet
