Hey there
Thanks for posting the info. I think that part of the problem that you may see with the FAA Vs. the JAA way of doing things is that the FAA teaches a private licence and that is all it is.
It is a licence to go fly on your own or with a buddy. Usually on the weekend for some fun.
Their are a lot of pilots in the US who just want to fly for fun, they know their limits and want to be a Day VFR only pilot.
Now if you want to compare apples to apples you would have to compare FAA, Canadian etc etc to a JAA ATPL.
I could for example say that the FAA is better as it does a flight test for ATPL where as the JAA does not. And that flight test is to a higher standard than the JAA IR, but in the end all it comes down to is who is examining, if you have an easy examiner then people get through who shouldn't. I purposly sent my students with the hardest examiner that I know, that way I knew I was doing my job and they were being prepared for further down the line.
I know that it is busy in JAA land, but believe me when you take students into Dallas on IFR X-C you are a little busy as well. So it can also be where people do their training.
The knowledge requirements may not be as intensive but I have taken all 3 of the above mentioned and 95% of the stuff in the JAA I could have ignored.
The FAA and Canadian systems focus on what you need to know and more importantly how to fly it properly.
I have found from my personnel experience that the JAA system is long winded and convoluted, and does not make a better pilot, maybe a more arrogant one (in some cases, especially the FAA bashing ones that have never flown their) but not a better one.
I have enjoyed all my flight training Canadian, FAA, JAA and would be the first to pick holes in the different systems.
I would from my limited experience of the different systems say that the Canadian system is the best one that I have been through.
The theory is half way between the FAA and JAA and the flying is as good as the FAA. I found the JAA CPL far to easy.
Then again it is always easy to look back once you have an ATPL or two and say ooo it was easy. That is because you have done all hard flying before.
Also in Canada nothing beats getting to pre-flight your plane in -35c and -45c wind chill. You really learn to respect weather in general when flying the Maritimes in Canada. From the CBs in the summer to the freezing weather in the winter.
These things can never be learnt from a book and must be experienced. This would be my main criticsm of the JAA that it is too reliant on book learnt material.
So anyways I think that to say that the JAA is the best system without really having experienced anything else is a bit excessive.
Also to let you know when I was instructing FAA I always gave briefings to my lessons unless we had already covered the material before. My briefing book is a folder that stands 15cm high.
If you want a structured flying system in the US then you goto a 141 school, which is where I taught, equivalent to OATs etc etc.
If not you go to 61, more of flying for fun school.
It is always difficult to compare the different systems as they are set up for different things.
I know some pilots in the US who just fly around in uncontrolled airspace they just love flying for fun. (not the poster on here
)
So why should they be burdened with having to learn all the other rubbish that an ATPL needs to know.
I know this was a bit of the topic of the original post, but I just thought I would straighten out that every country has its good and bad.
If the US and the rest of the world really produced such bad pilots then why would be allowed to fly into JAA airspace?
Anyways we have both said we have had bad students from both systems, I have also had good students from the JAA. Just like my Ab Initio students in the FAA were both good and bad.
I think that some of the problem is that some of the guys just come to the US to get a cheap and chearful PPL and then return to JAA land to continue their training. Thinking that it will be a breeze, this is never the case with anything in flying.
Anyways back to what I was doing,
Happy and safe flying to one and all no matter where your flying.
-273
P.S. Not meaning to have a go at any system but kind of gets my back up when someone says my system is better than yours. Even it is a little tongue in cheek. Everyone has something to learn in flying, if you dont think that you shouldn't be anywhere near a plane.