Pianorak
I've read most of the book and bearing in mind that in this business there are as many opinions on any single thing as there are people you ask, I don't think it is far off for the most part.
He does make some very valid points regarding why most pilots give up; pretty unusual in this business where the training organisations like to simplistically blame everything on lack of money.
I think his points are very well made re the near-total inadequacy of the PPL for actually going anywhere. Everybody knows (or should!) that you need a lot of extra training for e.g. aerobatics, but nobody is told that you also need it for flying from A to B.
He does occassionally make the same mistake which is routinely made by all UK's flying magazines: generalisations which may apply to one plane but certainly do not apply to another. (The magazines are constantly printing stuff about e.g. owner maintenance, nearly all of which is relevant only to owners of PRIVATE CofA planes).
I do think that on GPS (a great navigation device, great for reducing cockpit workload especially for a less than experienced pilot) he fails to make the distinction between it being used as a primary nav device, or as sole nav device. I think he should have grabbed the bull by the horns and simply told people to fully integrate the GPS into their navigation. After all, he does go into some length into VOR/DME etc but only gives a very brief mention to the IMC Rating, something which is a huge benefit to a UK pilot who wants to go from A to B rather than just fly 50 miles for a burger. But, perhaps, the author's high profile in the UK GA scene prevents him from being in open conflict with the CAA safety presentations... it is officially OK to kill yourself while VOR tracking but not while GPS tracking
