Jonkster,
I agree with what you say and like you I don't have the answers. What I've said is just an insight into what I am seeing at the grass roots level. As the saying goes, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!
If a flying school boasts highly experienced career instructors and training that is second to none, people will sign up to train there and would be happy to pay more, I would. It's the same reason people pay more for a 5 star hotel as opposed to a 2 or 3 star, it's just better and worth the extra money.
Yes, this does disadvantage some of the less affluent people in society, but I can assure you that I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I was determined enough and made it happen (only to earn peanuts at the end 😉
. So I do feel that charging more for training will result in being able to pay instructors well enough to make a respectable living, whilst at the same time delivering a high standard of training resulting in better quality pilots.
For those who have been out of instructing a while, it's very much volume based training now and instructors do their best in the minimal time they spend with a student.
Regarding the pilot shortage, we are simply setting the bar too high for the pilots we do have. The RHS can and should be filled by CPL pilots with let's say 1,000 TT for arguments sake. If it's good enough for a 300 hour cadet, surely the same should apply for a GA pilot with 1,000 hours. Anyone who has flown single pilot IFR in a clapped out 45 year old piston twin knows that it's far harder (and scary at times) than flying a jet at flight levels with multi crew.
Again, I mean no disrespect to cadets of which some I have seen are very good pilots, but it should be an even playing field and fair for everyone.