Ace Rimmer
I think the lack of motivation you describe (all too common) is a consequence of the type of people who are being attracted to GA at present.
Most of those who turn up to do a PPL are doing it as a personal challenge and they don't have much money, so after the PPL the challenge is gone and most of them pack it in. Quite a few teenagers are spending a birthday/xmas present and nearly all of those will drop out too.
On top of that, the PPL nav syllabus is really basic and anyone with enough intelligence to do the PPL exams will realise (usually quietly, manifested by lack of confidence) how hard it is going to be to fly long routes. But it is the longer routes which involve seeing places you can't easily drive to, plus utility like business trips, which keep people flying long-term.
They will also realise most of the planes on offer are junk, which most of their friends won't be seen dead in.
In fact I am sure that the reason the PPL syllabus is the way it is (WW2 navigation and the stupid circular slide rule are just 2 examples) is because most PPLs drop out quickly. Presently only a few % of PPLs are still flying after a few years. If that figure went up to say 25% (is that so hard to do??) there would be real pressure to modernise things. If you doubt this, ask yourself what would happen if you got 100 fresh PPLs to fly a 200nm x/c route in 5km vis; how many would get there, perhaps even alive? If driver training was this bad, there would be real pressure to change it because there would be so many new-driver deaths.
The whole PPL training system manages to hang in there BECAUSE MOST PACK IT IN ANYWAY.
If one attracted higher quality customers who can easily afford it, and there were decent planes to fly afterwards, one would not have the ridiculous dropout rate. Flying itself is a damn good hobby for modern people, especially if you get an IMC Rating.
Nothing in market research is going be a certainty but I've come across enough well-off people who would learn if the scene was not decrepit as it is.
So I think one could set up a successful upmarket flying school/club, in the right location.
Nothing will happen nationally, because the moment anyone mentions modernisation they get jumped on by the very large crowd of antique aircraft owners, the crowd of people who operate knackered C150s on pennies, the microlight crowd - they are all afraid of being priced out of their hobby. In reality these people (unless they fly from their own freehold farm strip on which they drive the lawn mower) are being subsidised by the PPL trainee punter who dumps £500 in landing/T&G fees at the airfield, another £6000 at the school, and then conveniently vanishes.
One has to visit a few of the CAA-run safety meetings and similar events to see just how hopeless the national situation is, and how little pressure there is from both the bottom and from the top to change anything.
Any suggestion re modernisation is jumped on by the ageing traditionalists who dominate these things. Just mention GPS in one of these meetings and see the response. It's like walking into a catholic church and shout out that virgin mary got pregnant by sleeping around. I suspect they dominate the CAA GA department too, despite the publicity that all of them "have a PPL".
I've said enough
