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Old 23rd Dec 2017, 13:59
  #220 (permalink)  
rudestuff
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Wherever I lay my hat
Posts: 4,009
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Ok. I am going to give you the advice I wish I'd had when I was in your position. I just piled in and went flying for 100 hours like you're planning to. It was easy, a lot of fun and in hindsight and long term that was a massively expensive decision.

You are about to pay a lot of money to fly 115 hours, so get as much out of it as you can. Think about what you are going to need later on in your career.

Specific advice:
1 Forget about doing the night rating.
2 Spend that cash on a standalone FAA PPL
3 Spend 40 hours getting an FAA IR

Why? You're not really going to rent a plane in the UK at night, so short term you don't need a night rating. Be honest, the only reason you're getting it is because you need it for a CPL. If you have an FAA PPL it automatically comes with night privileges, and as long as you have 5 hours night you will still qualify for an EASA CPL. The REAL reason for getting an FAA PPL is that you can add an FAA IR to it. Trust me, you really DO want to do that - because it will cost next to nothing (just the extra for an Instructor) - but you'll save at least £10,000 back home. An EASA CPL IR course takes 70 hours. With an FAA IR you only need 30 hours.

General advice: make every hour count. Fly at night, under the hood, cross country, PIC. Tick all the boxes.
My biggest regret was not doing my FAA IR. My second biggest regret was not getting more multi time (I'm thinking of becoming an MEP instructor but I need to pay for MEP time, jet time doesn't count! ) Of course you don't have that problem as I just gave you an extra £10k...
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