Farrell...
That's a very good point and one I have thought of. But my partner travels a great deal anyway, so actually if we time things carefully it shouldn't actually change the status quo (i.e. lots of long telephone calls). And obviously if something were to go wrong I would get right on a plane.
That said, if there are any good European alternatives (Spain?) I would certainly consider that, just because I would like to be geographically closer.
I had been anticipating it being somewhat quicker than 6 weeks though - many of the courses are advertised as being 21-28 days. Is this terribly unrealistic?
Thanks (wsmempson) for the suggestions on the exams... I'm just about ready to do most of them, though I figured I'd get better results if I wait for some practical experience before trying to sit RT and navigation.
One of my minor bugbears is that any pre-course cramming seems to be financially penalised. I asked one local operator for a ppl course price if I managed to get all my exams done in advance, and because I already bought some of the goodies (flying computer, literature etc...) and got quoted a higher price than the all-inclusive one. Presumably it makes sense to someone, somewhere.