Licensing nightmare
As an inexperienced pilot I have found all the different licensing requirements to be mind-boggingly overcomplicated.
I remember when I first started PPL training being surprised that I wouldn't be learning to fly through cloud (seemed like a basic expectation for flying in UK weather!), I'd gladly have spent longer and paid more money to be given that training before receiving a PPL but clearly that's not how things work.
Since qualifying my eyes have been opened to CPL courses, different types of instrument ratings, ATPL, MPL, JOC, ME, MEIR, Type ratings, MCC, the cynic in me thinks a lot of this stuff has been invented to make money for training providers, for example I find it strange that one would need to attend a course in order to learn to communicate effectively with the captain in an airliner (the MCC course), surely this is the sort of thing learnt through experience on the job....
Has it always been this way?
Coming out of WW2 were RAF pilots being turned away from airlines because they hadn't completed an orientation course or paid over the odds and completed a type rating?
I also find it hilarious how one can be qualified to fly in adverse weather in the UK and yet once you reach European airspace that's no longer legal.
Surely this could all be done so much better.