Ross,
I did my PPL in the US almost 2 years ago (yes, I am currently heavily
into my reval at the moment).
I highly advise you to get all the studying of the books done as you can
well before going. Work though all the exercises and don't even glance
at the questions in the confuser until you feel ready for an exam. It is far
too easy to go through the confuser learning how to answer the questions
and learning very little out of it.
I did all my exams apart from the R/T practical before I went over and that
helped a great deal. Most of the others out there at the same time were
trying to fit in their ground school and exams and finding it very hard going.
It will also help if you can do some lessons before you go. Remember that
US R/T and circuit practice is different from the UK styles. It is common for
students to do a US course, pass, then have problems once back trying to
cope with the UK way of things. If you learn UK R/T and try to stick to the
"correct" way without picking up much of the Americanisms you'll be better
prepared (I had 22 hours over here before I did my US course which
helped *loads*).
Also, doing some flying with a club over here first means they are less
likely to think of you as the use em and dump em and more likely to
see you as a potential aircraft hirer on your return. Get on friendly terms
with them and you will probably find them extremely helpful (I did).
The great things about these intensive courses are:
1. you don't spend half each lesson trying to remember how things
went the last time;
2. you are hanging around the airfield with other students and pilots
all day every day - it is a great feeling and you can pick up loads.
The problems are:
1. the structure of controlled airspace is slightly different;
2. R/T can seem very different;
3. altimiter setting in inches instead of hPa (ie. the good old mb).
On your return, expect to have a couple of flights with an instructor to
get back into the UK style of things. You will *not* do overhead joins
in the US (as far as I have seen) and you will not get any MATZ
experience out there so get an instructor to take you through them.
Can't think of anything else just now. Best of luck. I had the time of my
life when I was over there (and now regularly fly in Oregon).
M