as I have passed FAA & CAA ATPL exams albeit some 20 years ago there was no comparison. e.g. I studied the answers for the FAA exam in one day & took the main exam in less than one hour..!!!
That is indeed possible for an existing pilot with experience - because the FAA theory is mostly relevant and practical in nature. I did something similar on the FAA CPL exam.
That doesn't mean it is easy. It just means you already knew the material.
You can't do that with the JAA CPL/IR exams which are mostly irrelevant garbage. In those, any amount of experience will get you about 50% max and the rest has to be swatted up from the question bank.
Also, I gather from old-timers, the Euro exams were a bit better 20 years ago. Not a lot better, but JAA gets the prize for introducing the biggest load of garbage. And in those days there were easier routes to an IR e.g. the 700hr route.
By CV I mean the initial colour vision test. You have to get a pass just once, anywhere in JAA-land, and it is good for life. The problem is that if you fail (in that particular type of CV test) you are (in theory
) barred from re-taking that test for the rest of your life. For example I failed the Isihara but passed the Lantern test (a very common thing). But had I failed the Lantern test, I would have been stuffed - unless it was done by a doctor who just let me walk out of the office so I could try again elsewhere... you can pass most things with practice but not in this perverse procedure, unless you can get hold of the test unit beforehand and practice with it.
A pity Hum's beautiful pic of the king having no clothes has been deleted
