Let us keep the subject on ‘Financing The Training’.
I don’t care where you get your PPL at. It can be in any country. But to make things simple, I would get a PPL in the country where I was going to do my hour building in. If you have strong ties to any one country with a job and family and a house, then you are forced to stay put. In that case free glider tug hours may be one of the better ways forward. But personally I found hanging out all day at Lasham to get some time in Super Cub G-ATRG to be a waste of my time.
But if your a free spirit, then I can’t think of a better place than the United States. A UK PPL will need a night rating to be transferred to a US PPL. The TSA makes training in America somewhat problematic. Canada is far less hassle. Usually it’s more expensive, but at present due to the high US Dollar against the low Canadian Dollar the US advantage is not so great. But that could change, so beware.
Hour building in the US is great fun. But it’s best to use you time wisely. I’m quite happy just bean bonking around as many airports in a day as I can do. But your supposed to be training and learning, not just goofing around. So make your training routes preplanned and challenging. You should spend many hours on vfrmaps.com going over you planned routes for your odyssey.
You don’t have to do all your hour building in one go. You can break it up into sections and do your ATPL written exams in between. I did mine in three sessions. I would have gone stir crazy doing all the exams at the same time. The flying part is what kept me sane and drove me on. Hour building whilst doing home study is the best and cheapest way.
Then, and only then, are you ready to borrow money for a CPL - IR - ME. You should be able to get it done for around £20,000.
If you need a recommendation try Stapleford Flight Center. If anybody knows Eric Thruston please tell him that a grateful student thanks him.
Last edited by button push ignored; 6th November 2017 at 14:42.