FS1

Hi Rich

Here is my reply to a similar post on another web forum.  It gives you some pointers.  If you need any more information or if you're interested in tunnel coaching, get in touch

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FS Coaching
Try and do as many jumps as you can afford, both from a time and money perspective. Rather than do the odd FS jump over a couple of months, try to do 3-4 jumps per day over a weekend or long weekend. You will be much more current and confident doing a bunch of jumps together. It will be more expensive, in terms of doing that many jumps in one go, but the benefits speak for themselves.

Try and find an FS coach that can commit to all of your jumps. Benefits are that you have one coaching method, building of a rapport, fallrate assessment, coach has 1st hand knowledge of your progression, consistent approach to brief and debrief (oh, and whilst I think about it, try and get an FS coach with a video, much better debriefs IMO)

Not sure what your DZ's deal is on FS coached jumps, but the reason that you pay (at least for the slot) is so that you have an experienced jumper that will be your reference in the sky. You can be pretty confident that your coach is flying on heading, and straight down, then it's your job to fly relative to him (hence relative work; RW) That addresses part of your post regarding effectiveness of drills on solos. Your coach can and probably will give you some things to work on for those solo jumps, but you'd need to do a couple of jumps with them first so they can assess what would be beneficial for you.

Wind Tunnel

Another thin to consider is wind tunnel time.

1 on 1 coaching with (preferably the same) FS coach.

Benefits
 - Less stressful environment, aiding body awareness
 - Longer learning time, enabling repetition of skill / drill
 - Immediate feedback, allowing correction and opportunity to practice there and then
 - Much cheaper, ~£10 per minute opposed to £38-£40 per min for a FS jump (more if you pay for 3 and 4 way slots)

You will still have to show that you can do what is required in the air, but you will have already had the time and opportunity to get the techniques right, so it's a much faster progression than without tunnel.  You could typically cover a number of techniques in one or two jumps, rather than say, four to six.
There are, however, certain things that cannot be covered in the wind tunnel, such as exits, safety, swoop to pin (speak to an FS coach about this) and tracking, so you should still expect to do those things in the sky.

I hope that helps 

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Rgds, Phil
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"You're a long time dead" - My Dad