Consider FAA training in the States. You can also do the FAA in the UK at the FAA flying schools. In Southend there is one called Willow Air. If you go to Willow at Southend Airport - they will give you the low down on getting an FAA licence PPL/CPL/ATPL.
The FAA training is different from the UK / JAR (european) training.
Go to Willow and ask them for the difference.
I did both.
The UK/JAR way is academic costly and extra hard, the exam objectives are to see if you have read the material/memorised it and are able to decipher purposely ambiguous questions.
Go to Bonus Aviation for your studies and flying or to Bristol. Good luck.
Wherever you go - the process is costly.
The FAA method is comparatively pragmatic. The exam objective is to see if you have read and memorised the material and can answer the questions which are written in plain English. As everything is unambiguous
and unbiased then it is comparatively cheaper.
If you go to the States to do your training - then got to allATPs.com and find out what courses they have which would fit your requirements or FlightSafety International - not cheap, at all. Or PanAm International Academy. All of the above mentioned places (Brit and non-Brit will do you a course from ab-intio (= don`t know a thing) right through to ATPL = Airline Transport Pilots Licence.
You would do best to get your PPL first. Then when you have done that - realise that the CPL will be easier as you have covered a lot of the subject matter and a lot harder because there is
<<MASSES>> more to study.
yup.
If you are prepared to study like a b---h then nothing will stand in your way.
Good luck. If you have the wonga - go to these places.
Enjoy - don`t lose sight of the objective. ATPL/IR/ME
Make sure your colour blindness thing is written in stone, before you part with a penny/cent !!
See what the airlines say - as, they are the people who are going to employ you - not the flying training industry. . . unless you
want to be an Instructor - there you will fly and may, may, make `some` money - even enough to live. So, `clear it` with your . . potential employer(s) first.
Added: Also, Ricky, if you are feeling good about the FAA route - then do it my friend. My biggest mistake in life is that I chose the UK route first.
I may get hammered for saying that and have been in many fights as a result - but, it is sickeningly true - "why have 14,000 UK pilots gone to do their training in the states" asked the last Prime Minister.