I did my FAA training at a part 141 school in Arizona that was relatively small, and it wasn't even the cheapest way to do it. Total costs came to around $40,000 and I got CPL SE, ME, and IR. The JAA conversion cost me around $17,000 including MCC.
I could have saved some money if I had utilized a Cessna 150 or 152 for most of the SE VFR training and a C172RG for the CPL, but I didn't have those available to me at the time. I could have saved even more money if I had been willing to move to do my training at a lesser expensive flying club.
The JAA conversion probably could have been done for slightly cheaper had I chosen different countries for my training but probably not much cheaper. If I had stayed in the US until I got a regional airline job and an ATP, the conversion would have probably been cheaper with a type rating on a JAA ATPL.
Last edited by zondaracer; 16th January 2013 at 16:06.