Ludwig - I never ever meant that instructors should be paid that. The result would be that everybody trained in the States which is obviously a little self defeating.
FFF - yep all those would be upsides of increased salary.
Whirly - if instructing is your only job and you are living in a crappy cold caravan eaking out the pennies in Asda then devotion to the job wears thin after about a year even if you started as the most enthusiastic chap ever.
GA is basically screwed in this country due to sky high taxes and sky high regulatory fees.
It only seems to be getting worse and frankly I don't think there is anything but a smaller future for Group A flying.
The recreational people will head off towards gliding, microlighting and ultralighting as they all become more and more sophisticated and capable and cheaper.
Meanwhile Group A will become the preserve of people training towards higher licenses who will stop GA flying the minute they start commercial flying.
Its only a matter of time before the 'Green' brigade manage to mount an effective campaign against the horrendously low tech high emission noisy engines we use throughout GA. We keep loosing airfields suitable for Group A and with the value of land spiralling out of all control in the UK this will only get worse as owners talk to developers.
The average age of your Group A aircraft has been getting longer since the early 70's. The fleet is old knackered, maintenance intensive, thirsty, unreliable and scruffy.
The costs of certification and design are so high that no replacement for the 152/172/P38/28 is in the offing. Truth be known this suits the country down to the ground. In these crowded skies nobody wants private people pottering about. Nobody wants the noise, nobody wants to pay for radar coverage, nobody wants to operate airfields, nobody wants you burning petrol and spewing out clouds of smoke.
Sad, but the way I think its headed.
Cheers
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