JAR/PPL in the States
 

Hi,
I'm new to all of this and am looking at completing a JAR/PPL in the States and would like to hear from anyone who has done the same/similar and who can offer any advice/recommendations on where to go etc.

Thanks in advance,

Jimbo

Hi Jimbo, welcome aboard.

The best place to start is to do a search on this forum (Private Flying since I see this thread started elsewhere). That will turn up a lot of threads where the pros and cons of learning in the States have been discussed.

I can't offer any insight myself since I did mine in sunny England.

Jimbo,

FS is right, there's a wealth of data on pprune regarding this. The back pages of a GA mag such as 'Flyer' will give you the adverts for the main schools then you can use the search facility here to check out comments.

I did mine in Florida and I'd recommend it to anyone. I can't see the point of spending so much more time and money to do in the UK what you can in three weeks in the US. But you'll find that opinions are divided on the matter.

Your only enemy is procrastination...

Thanks for your comments guys- I can see that opinion is divided on the issue!

strafer- did you find it a challenge to do it in three weeks as opposed to four- how much prep did you do before you went?

Jimbo

Jimbo,

Did I do any prep before I went? No. I knew next to nothing about aeroplanes. Was it a challenge to do it in three weeks? Yes & no. We lost about 6 days to the weather, but I used them to study for the exams. It was certainly hard (but enjoyable) work with a lot of days going from 7am to 11pm. I didn't find it an intellectual challenge - there's a lot to learn but most of it is straightforward.

There were two types of people who didn't pass the course 1) The terminally stupid, ie, the bloke who after being fined for not doing a pre-flight check ("because 'it aint worth it, is it?") then took off the next day without replacing his fuel caps and 2) the people who thought they could combine the course with a holiday and get bladdered every night.

If you do decide to book 4 weeks instead of 3, then should you finish early, you can either hire planes and scoot around (still as a student pilot mind you) or visit America's entertainment options. Which is nice.

One more thing - the only way to pass the exams and do all your flying was to cram each exam in an few hours then aim for 75% (the pass rate) rather than 100%. This is heresy to some people, but I'm of the opinion that you'll learn far more about flying post-skills test than before. It also took me around 4 hours flying when I got back to get checked out in the UK.

Still, everyone's different (especially Jonny Wilkinson) - I would have expected a few other opinions on your thread by now - perhaps everyone's still pissed? ( Mad Jock excepted :) )

Hey Jimbo,

I did my ppl course in Florida a couple of years ago, just before the UK converted to JAR actually, and had a great time doing it. Finished the course in about 3 weeks. The preperation I did before going consisted of finishing four of the ppl theory exams in the uk before leaving for florida, which made it a lot easier, study-wise, when i got to florida.

While learing to fly in the States is a good idea, and certainly a lot cheaper, I have found recently that flying in Australia ia a whole lot better. The standard here is higher than anywhere else I have flown, and with the exchange rate the way it is right now, you may find studying in Oz to be an even cheaper option than the states. Maybe something you should look into?

Good luck with it mate :)