That is all a lot more qualified than what you wrote before, and I can only agree with all of that, even the bit what you say about being tough!
The issue I raised was that you need the knowledge before you can master these matters and it is my firm belief that there is no or indeed too little attention for this during the PPL training.
Yup the licence is one to learn but who can stick up their hands and say that anything was done with the fuel calculations for the XC work they did during their training?
And even less will have been told anything about leaning.
That is not out of malice but just because the entire syllabus and training set up is not geared towards training people to do that for which they think they are going to use their PPL, touring.
Encapsulating these issues would not be difficult but does not happen. Why? I think because a lot of PPL instructors don't lean either or work out fuel calculations for XCs. What they don't know or don't think to be important they don't pass on. Contrary to popular belief most instructors are just humans.
FD