getting an FAA PPL

[vandereydt]

Has anybody here experience in getting his PPL in the US, an FAA PPL (not the JAA)

I am looking at going to the US to get my PPL there ( I own an N-reg plane !) and have some small issues with my medical here.

I would fly lots over here with my local flying instructor (of course not solo, but still would give me plenty of experience), and then go to the US and do a very quick programm to get the licence.

Anybody got some experience doing this, or going to US flying schools amd where did you go?

thanks
Ronny

[Prawo Jazdy]

There's a flying school at Thruxton that has an FAA rated instructor who also holds UK flight instructor qualifications.

http://www.westernairthruxton.co.uk/faa.htm

It gives the impression that he can only revalidate an FAA licence rather than train from scratch, but worth a phonecall to find out the answer.

[simonej]

I did my PPL, CPL and IR in the USA some years back (and hold FAA CFI, CFI-I and MEI) so have a good idea of how the system works.

You'll find that you'll get tons of people saying the training is terrible, standards low and that the JAA way is far superior. It isn't! However, just like in the UK there are some schools that churn out a terrible product and these perhaps tarnish the reputation of the whole FAA flight training system (I've met students who've been UK trained who can't read a NOTAM and have no idea how to calculate performance etc....).

I'd say the important thing is to find a decent school in the USA that will get you the license and then find somewhere in the UK that can train you in the 'differences' of operating in UK airspace. An aircraft flies the same wherever you are so it's mainly procedures, weather, terrain and ATC that you'd need to cover. You could always just get a competent friend to come flying with you once back in the UK and get them to explain the differences, I'd jump at the chance to get some time in a single engine piston again!

Alternatively, do your training over here and get a JAA PPL and then have your license validated by the FAA. They used to be able to do it but I can't remember the details. I believe you can also fly an N reg aircraft with a JAA license as I was doing that over here for a while when my FAA medical expired, although you'd need to carefully read the regulations on that one!

Edit: Just noticed you're in Belgium - they're funny buggers when it comes to FAA stuff! You might want to make sure they'll let you do what you're wanting to do before you actually do it!

Edited by simonej on Wednesday 17th August 17:15

[Chuck328]

Get onto the Flyer and Pprune forums. You'll find plenty of info there.