The ICAO route
Flyboybrad,
My advice to you is to try to train as cheaply as is possible. Cheap doesnt have to mean low quality.
My advice is that you avoid loans and try to live as economically as possible. A J-1 visa program in the US is good for building experience. Have you looked at schools in South africa, SA is becoming a very popular destination with UK students and is cheaper than the US(PPL-£2.5k incl accom& travel) (CPL/IR<£15k) Oz & NZ are similarly priced. Southern Africa also has some job oppurtunites for low houred CPL's(bush flying- check the African forum). Apart from instructing at the moment there are practically no jobs for low houred CPL/IR's in Europe. Most ICAO syllabuses outside JAA are easier and much more sensibly structured and the weather's much better, so u can train in a shorter time. with andICAO CPL/IR with 700 TT you'll need only a CPL flight test plus 15HRs min IR conversion to get a JAA CPL/IR.