PPL written exams in UK

[AJ]

Hi there

Hoping to fly out to complete a JAA PPL course in Florida in late September. I am a 'newbie' as far as flying of planes is concerned (as opposed to just serving the folks down the back) , and would appreciate advice on the following.

Having read a little on others' experiences of flying in the US (both here on pprune and on other aviation forums), it appears that it may be beneficial to complete some of the written exams for the PPL before I fly out to the US. If this is indeed possible, do I have the time to study and complete at least some of the exams before late September? If so, who or where do I apply to, to sit the exams?

I do apologise if this has been asked before, in which case, please just direct me to the appropriate thread (I did try the search function).

regards

[Evo]

It's possible, and I'd agree that it's well worth doing the exams before heading out to Florida - doing a three week PPL will be fairly hard work without the added effort of studying for seven exams in the evenings.

One of your local flying schools should be able to help with the writtens (you don't say where you are in the UK). It isn't unknown for people to get a bit grumpy when they hear that you're off for cheap flying overseas, so a bit of tact is probably worthwhile (but if so then I might suggest that's possibly not somewhere you would want to fly once you're back... ;) )

[BEagle]

To give you an example, we do not charge anything for the first attempt at each exam taken by students on our PPL/NPPL courses. For a second attempt it's £10 - and we won't let people have a 3rd attempt until they've attended a specialist ground training provider. The exams are spaced throughout the course, so that they are relevant to the stage of training being conducted at the time.

But for people who want to come and take the exams but don't want to do any flying with us before they go to one of those American places, it'll cost the same £41 per exam that the CAA charges. That's for each and every attempt, of course. Exam passes will be recorded on the PPL Application form; a copy will be given to the applicant. If the applicant fails any exam, the relevant FCL252 will be raised; the American school will be sent a summary of the applicant's examination failures in order to ensure that the applicant does not attempt to take the same paper elsewhere.

[FNG]

You can take the exams and the RT practical at Guildhall University by Tower Bridge.

[AJ]

Many thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I've actually given myself 4 weeks or more, as my airline ticket is changeable & my employer (airline) is making very positive noises about the whole enterprise - I think they like the idea of having cabin crew with pilot licences! :}

regards

[BEagle]

I hope you've been watching 'Tonight with Trevor McDonald' tonight to learn about the utterly paranoid lunacy of the way Uncle Spam treats innocent tourists who've been wrongly tagged as a threat to their country by some corrupted computer record or other.

I would think very seriously about whether you want to run the risk of being treated as a 'terrorist' by the Americans if their idiot computers screw up. Wild horses wouldn't get me to the 'Land of the Free' for any reason whatsoever.

Much easier to do your PPL in a land which doesn't treat tourists as terrorists.......

The Foreign Office has over 100 cases pending concerning tourists treated unreasonably by American Customs and Immigration.