Oxford for £lots or U.S. for £lots + extras?
You are probably unaware that Sept 11th means that being a flying instructor in the US is now akin to saying you are a traffic warden in this. There was massive cancellation of PPL courses which led to many flying instructors being laid off.
As a foreigner working on a limited visa you would have little opportunity of finding instructing or air taxi work in the USA at the moment.
The whole concept is flawed I am afraid. Reading the adverts in the backs of magazines and digesting the blurb these FTO's send you gives a very skewed sense of what will work.
There are perfectly good established flying schools in the UK who can guide you through a modular ATPL for around £35,000. That is the way forward for you I would guess.
Good luck,
WWW
As a foreigner working on a limited visa you would have little opportunity of finding instructing or air taxi work in the USA at the moment.
The whole concept is flawed I am afraid. Reading the adverts in the backs of magazines and digesting the blurb these FTO's send you gives a very skewed sense of what will work.
There are perfectly good established flying schools in the UK who can guide you through a modular ATPL for around £35,000. That is the way forward for you I would guess.
Good luck,
WWW
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davidanthonylucas, the real question should be : what are you going to do with a JAR fATPL ?
instruction is nice but pays peanuts (and cheap peanuts !) , most guys cant afford it and right now it will be difficult to find a place anyway.
personnally i would advise a PPL/IFR and a share in an airplane if you enjoy flying but avoid fATPL like the plague, especially at 60K (and 250 flying hours).
The FAA system is better since you build more time for less money and what counts is time in the air (with good instruction and sound theory) but without a green card/US citizenship you are never going to work for a serious outfit.
instruction is nice but pays peanuts (and cheap peanuts !) , most guys cant afford it and right now it will be difficult to find a place anyway.
personnally i would advise a PPL/IFR and a share in an airplane if you enjoy flying but avoid fATPL like the plague, especially at 60K (and 250 flying hours).
The FAA system is better since you build more time for less money and what counts is time in the air (with good instruction and sound theory) but without a green card/US citizenship you are never going to work for a serious outfit.
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Generally the arguments for where to fly are:
UK Cons
xpensive, very unreliable/miserable weather.
UK Pros:It is were you intend to fly so learn there, better training! (it depends on where you train!).
US Cons
ifferent procedures, have to acclimatise to UK environment on return home, extra expense of flights over, accomodation etc.
US Pros:Very Pro General Aviation and great place to fly, much cheaper flying environment, bit of a holiday and no distractions for the duration of the training.
What I have done is weight up all the pro's and Con's of each environment for each module to come up with my plan as follows:
1. JAA PPL in US followed by checkout in UK and some hour building in UK. - (Complete).
2. Main hour building in US in C150 for 30pph and IMC rating (so I have less chance of killing myself in the first 100 hrs - (Complete).
3. ATPL exams distance learning (should have done this full time
) and finishing hour building in UK - Nearly complete.
4. JAA CPL/MEP in US. Now comfortable with both US and UK environment so going to where the weather is good. To complete within as little time as possible.
5. FAA IR. Can make full use of Instrument hours so far from IMC rating. Can't credit this directly to JAA IR training.
6. FI(R) in the UK full time. Hopefully get some work out of them.
7. Try and blag "staff rates" for JAA IR conversion course.
8. MCC at some point.
I do think certain parts of the training should be in the UK and acclimatisation is not as easy as you think.
I also think that as we all usually fly US aircraft whilst training a big proportion of this should be done where you just pay less (especially multi) to do it.
My aim is to be as professional a pilot as I can be whilst cutting out any uneccessary costs if possible.
UK Cons
xpensive, very unreliable/miserable weather.UK Pros:It is were you intend to fly so learn there, better training! (it depends on where you train!).
US Cons
ifferent procedures, have to acclimatise to UK environment on return home, extra expense of flights over, accomodation etc.US Pros:Very Pro General Aviation and great place to fly, much cheaper flying environment, bit of a holiday and no distractions for the duration of the training.
What I have done is weight up all the pro's and Con's of each environment for each module to come up with my plan as follows:
1. JAA PPL in US followed by checkout in UK and some hour building in UK. - (Complete).
2. Main hour building in US in C150 for 30pph and IMC rating (so I have less chance of killing myself in the first 100 hrs - (Complete).
3. ATPL exams distance learning (should have done this full time
) and finishing hour building in UK - Nearly complete.4. JAA CPL/MEP in US. Now comfortable with both US and UK environment so going to where the weather is good. To complete within as little time as possible.
5. FAA IR. Can make full use of Instrument hours so far from IMC rating. Can't credit this directly to JAA IR training.
6. FI(R) in the UK full time. Hopefully get some work out of them.
7. Try and blag "staff rates" for JAA IR conversion course.
8. MCC at some point.
I do think certain parts of the training should be in the UK and acclimatisation is not as easy as you think.
I also think that as we all usually fly US aircraft whilst training a big proportion of this should be done where you just pay less (especially multi) to do it.
My aim is to be as professional a pilot as I can be whilst cutting out any uneccessary costs if possible.
