interesting discussion going on here.....
Trial flights... BEagle has it right, as I see it...
The arrogance of that "I fly airliners, so I'm equally as qualified to conduct a 'trail flight' as any puddlejumper instructor" statement beggars belief. If you are not an authorised instructor, you may NOT conduct 'trial flying lessons'. Period. No discussion...
I don't know the particulars in England, only here in Germany, which is also now a JAR country (what a mess
) but here ANY student, or potential student must have certain paperwork laid before the school before going up in a so-called "trail lesson" (also for insurance reasons) other wise he/she can only go up in the right seat, the instuctor in the left (and yes, ONLY instructors). No one on the ground can see who is actually handling the controls and the instrutor has the full responstibility anyway.
Sightseeing flights for pay are legal here, outside of an AOC, as long as they are conducted on a plane which is registered as having only 4 seats or less, payment isn't high enough to appear to be for profit, and no advertising is done. This enables clubs to give flights to visitors (and yes, usually a bit more expensive then a regular club flight
). Of course, there are a lot of clubs and LOTS of balloonists that misuse this rule ... making quite a profit indeed... but whose to "catch" them? It's difficult to prove in the end....
However an AOC Inspector is not appropiate. The CAA already have Standards Inspectors for Training schools who, already, may inspect registered flying schools, if they so wish. So far they have chosen not to do so on a regular basis. No doubt because the system is working quite well
if the situation in England is similar to here, the reason for no inspections is not choosing to do so but lack of man(woman) power! Personel has been cut, the remaining personel are overloaded with work and just don't have the time to inspect ....
I find it fascinating how the various JAA states followed up on the JAR's differently.... no harmonisation at all it seems... I have have downloaded your LASORS and find it very intersting to compare with our regs...
Westy