Right then chaps.
Now, I've been a PPL, an hours building PPL instructor, a commercial career instructor with BAE and I've been an airline pilot. I became a flying instructor at the age of
19 with less than 120hrs to my logbook - and I was good.
So, I perhaps have some overall perspective that others lack.
You can't generalise. You can't say all women can't reverse or that all Scots are tight fisted.
In my first 500hrs of instructing I was as kean as mustard and worked like a little beaver at every aspect of every lesson. By a 1,000hrs I was a little more jaded but a bit more competent. By 2,000hrs I was hacked off with instructing and so left and doubled my wages overnight.
You tell me at which point of my instructing career curve was I giving the best service? I can't tell you to be honest - probably around the 500hrs mark truth be known. I was just about developing my style and confidence and was still dead keen.
The part time instructor who does something else is OK but rarely can they do you a whole PPL course with any kind of continuity and to paraphrase Roy Castle - Continuity's What You Need.
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I think PPLs are now graduating with better knowledge for flying and have much better technology at their disposal. I think though that they don't tend to go on to develop their skills and I think this is down to the cost and cruminess of GA in the UK.
Its just too expensive, too crowded, too tatty with too little scenery and too many rules.
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I think what should happen is that the regulator and the government should change their stance on GA. The training could be brought under the auspices of any other vocational training and be eligible for a small grant and be VAT free. The CAA could instigate massively subsidised GA certification programmes that would result in the likes of the diesel Diamonds coming bang onto the market at sensible replacement prices.
Whallop! Suddenly training just got a lot cheaper. The aircraft got 50% cheaper to run and GA became a lot more interesting with modern, glass, good performance aircraft in which you really could afford to go to France for the weekend in.
The VAT and training grants (perhaps they pay the test and CAA fees for license issue) would be paltry to the treasury. The cost to the CAA of supporting certification for the next decade would:
a) be covered by the fees they get from one small regional airline in one month, and
b) be recouped over the coming decades by the now much bigger and better GA scene anyway.
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And finally. Be very careful before you start talking about Real Pilots and who is better or best. One thing I have learned and seen in flying is that there is always someone in the corner who does it faster, higher, longer or better than you and they probably are younger and slicker with a bigger watch to boot.
You're only ever as good as your last checkride.
Cheers
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