Flight school in Phoenix
 

Next year I will be in Phoenix, AZ for two weeks and would like to spend the time doing something useful and fun, i.e. to fly. I have an EASA PPL(A) and am planning to validate it there. My questions are:

• Does anyone have personal experience with flight schools / FBOs in the Phoenix area? Can you recommend or advise against any?
• The other option I am thinking about is doing a stand-alone FAA license; since you never know when EASA will prohibit flying altogether. Is it possible to do the validation and then go for the FAA license afterwards, so if it doesn't work out in two weeks I would still be able to fly an N-reg? Or do you have to get the "based on" license revoked before they can issue another one?
• Has any of you with an EASA PPL done the full FAA license later, and what were your experiences? How much flight time do you have to take and how long did it take you? How was your previous experience recognized?
• For a validation, I don't need a visa, whereas to do an FAA private pilot certificate I need a special visa and it must be a Part 141 school, right?

Thanks in advance for any helpful information.

Although I haven't done what you're asking, I did once get a based-on (§61.75) FAA Private Pilot certificate when I went there to hour-build. I went to Chandler Air Service for 3 weeks, and highly recommend them.

Then, a year or two later, when I got my FAA "standalone" Commercial (also at Chandler), it superseded the Private and then I became pure FAA and could forget about SEP ratings and all that bollocks having to keep my underlying JAA licence current. I was able to still rent G-reg's back in the UK for flying with PPL privileges, purely on my FAA certificate.

There is plenty of information on here and elsewhere on the web about how you go about getting a based-on FAA certificate, so I won't go into that.

You will need a visa, and TSA clearance if you intend to do any training towards a certificate or rating, so start lining all that up if that's the route you intend to go down. If you're only going to do a bit of flying, then you should be ok on an ESTA.

To obtain a standalone FAA Private, then it's just a case of meeting the experience requirements detailed in the regs (and your JAA hours/experience will count) which shouldn't take too long and will include night flying (if you don't have a Night Qualification) and learning how to fly a few "ground reference manoeuvres" not covered in your JAA syllabus.

When will you be going?

I will be going in March. I have actually started the validation process for the based-on certificate already, so I don't need more information on that.

I am about halfway through NVFR training, but maybe it won't be finished by March given the weather here. "Ground reference manoeuvers" sound like fun.

By the way, my flying is purely recreational, so I am not working towards any commercial rating. But maybe some day an IR or MEP would be nice.

I will have a look at Chandler (actually, I had already done so) and maybe drop them a line to have their opinion on what is feasible.

sunside,

If I was going to Phoenix, I would not bother about getting an FAA license. I would spend the same amount of money for fewer hours with Budd Davidsson (http://www.airbum.com/BlogOnBDBio.html) in his Pitts S2A:
Pitts Special

While you are waiting to go there (or even if you don't go), listen to his podcasts, particularly his warbird experiences in the 70s with Junior Birchinall, a cropduster in Paris, Texas:
The Flight Journal Podcast with Budd Davisson - Flight Journal

or read his Pilot Reports:
Pilot Reports on fighters, bombers, antique aircraft and homebuilt aircraft

Or jump in Chandler's Pitts S2-C with Curt Langenhorst, and learn from a Jedi master.