I agree, do the stand alone.
But.
Maybe I'm a bit daft, or a slow learner pilot, or both, but just be prepared for it not taking 5 hrs and be done in a day. That won't happen, not even in Twin Peaks, Omaha. Mine took 25 hrs. Granted, this was in Los Angeles right next to LAX, so the workload is high, but still.
5 hrs of those were night and night xcountry that you need for the FAA to start with. The rest were familiarization with the airspace, procedures, ATC and maneuvers that I haven't done in 20 years. Unless you are super proficient with turns around a point, S-turns, forward slips, recovering from power on/off stalls, slow flight, recovering from unusual attitudes on instruments, 45 degree turns, crosswind landings, short field take offs/landings, soft field take offs/landings etc, then it's going to take more than a couple of hours.
On top of that the oral is no joke - it takes some severe studying and most certainly a good few hours of ground instruction. The DPE will grill you for an hour if you're good, but could be up to three hours if you have weak spots. That's three hours of where you need to provide all the answers - that's not something you can fudge. Sure, many things are common sense, but you need to know US FAR/AIM definitions of them, not just in general terms.
It can probably be done in a week, but there won't be any time hanging on a beach with the family - that's for sure.
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 4th Jan 2011 at 11:03.