So let's bash flying schools - they clearly are the problem...
[rant on]
Seriously, who would want to run a flying school?
Look at how many schools have disappeared in the last 10 years. How many smaller schools are there today compared to 20-30 years ago? How many aero clubs are left compared to then?
Most smaller (typically non FEE help) schools are struggling to make a sustainable buck as it is.
I regularly hear comments about the high cost of instruction as it is.
You increase wages to rates comparable in the (even slightly) more glamorous parts of the industry and you will have to increase dual rates to cover it or you go backwards.
How is increasing the cost of instruction going to increase business in an industry that is already struggling?
The only schools that would benefit would be the big training factories that get money up front from the government from FEE help and already charge way above the pay as you go schools (only their student's don't notice that until they have long left - including many who drop out).
Pay as you go smaller schools struggle to compete as it is. I do not see replacing the smaller operations with FEE help sausage factories is a win for Aviation.
And yes, I also have seen some seriously poor standards of flying training and airmanship in recent years but go and look at the old ASDs from back in the 60s and tell me that pilot standards and airmanship were that brilliant back then. Every issue seemed to have some twit going VFR into IMC or running out of fuel or doing other dumb stuff. The accident rate is not that much different today.
Perhaps we look back on those days with rose coloured Raybans...
I would love some of the people who give their blanket disparagement of flying training to set up a school themselves and show us all how it should be done.
[rant off]
blood pressure coming down...