What school for JAA ATPL???

[sean112]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and intend to start training to become an airline pilot in the coming months and was looking for some recommendations. I am originally from Ireland but currently living in New Zealand and was thinking of going to the US to train as its cheaper?

I would greatly appreciate if anyone could give me any information.

[B2N2]

OK, hold on to your hat and coat for a moment, it's gonna get stormy.
Despite the best marketing efforts, there is NO school that can train you to be an airline pilot when you finish their curriculum.
You will hold a Commercial so you will have completed Commercial Pilot training.
The only one that can make you an airline pilot is an airline.

Now that we have had that removed from my system, how can we help?
First of all we need to know where you intend to work?
As in does your license eventually need to read CAA,JAA,FAA,DGCA, CASA or something else?
It does not necessarily restrict your training to a particular geographical area but it would require conversion costs.
For FAA CPL ME IR estimate $50-$65K plus an additional $25K for JAA (European) conversion.
You can find cheaper but that means flying 30+ old aircraft during your training, self study with very little ground instruction and cutting corners in general. It will eventually come back to bite you.
Let me know if you need any specific info.

[sean112]

Thank you for your reply.

I am very flexible, as in I will live and work anywhere but I am just wondering what the best option is ie what school and best value for money etc. I was going to go for the JAA ATPL licence, which I believe is possible to do in the US. There are schools such as EFT in Florida that have JAA instructors.

As I have no experience I was hoping people who are involved in the industry could point me in the right direction so if you have any advice or recommendations please let me know.

Thanks