I too would love to see GA made more accessible and cheaper but those days are long gone and no glossy brochure is going to bring them back. When I learnt to fly in the early 80's all I had to do was drive to the airport and after the brief go and pre-flight the aircraft and off we went. As I progressed to an UPPL the VTCs,VFG and VEC's had come in the mail free of charge and I could still just go to the airport, do the brief and pre-flight and launch into freedom's skies. Now its ASICs hi-vis vest and a lot of expense before you even step into the flying school. There is just no way that the clock is going to be turned back to make flying as accessible as it was for me in my 20's.
Entirely agree.
I'm a firm believer that flying a light aircraft is no harder than being a good driver. You could go solo in the old days in 5 hours or such, now it seems much more is required. Why bother with all the rigmarole of getting ASIC, background checks, locking planes up with multiple security devices, wearing a hi-vis, can't go airside unless you have a purpose etc etc etc. Add to that the additional costs tacked onto hiring the aircraft and instructor that were never much in the past, landing fees, parking fees, test fees, more test fees, licence fees, medical fees. GAAPs turned into class D with extra procedure and cost. Then you have the stupid rules where if someone comes and crashes on your airfield it's your fault and other liability issues, which shut down access to 2/3rds of all small little strips.
Many are spending the amount that a PPL would cost on a computer to play flight sim, why can't they be brought into the fold and actually learn to fly. Most responses is it's all too hard and too much work, when you show the list of things you have to do before even sitting in the aircraft it's easy to know why. Also what can you do with the licence after it's arrived, GA touring is dieing, with less operators catering to fly ins, why, because there's very little of it.
To PPL level it should be straight forward and easy. And GA and RAA should all be grouped into a recreational/private/training under say 2 or 3 tons MTOW with reduced rules and compliance. I mean seriously why is a Piper Warrior deemed to need more rules than a Jabiru. Just make it similar to cars where you can drive anything up to 3 ton or so. A 3 ton truck is far more dangerous in every aspect of what harm it can do and what bad it can be used for over say a Piper Seneca or Baron. Not saying you don't train for those with ME and IR approvals, but relax medical and say maintenance requirements. Allow private strip owners to just need appropriate warning of use at own risk, and so on.