Gday Steve76
Yeap you sure are drawing some heavy fire.... I agree with some parts of your proposal; however I feel that the onus of proper qualifications for pilots lie with the relevant Aviation authorities, ie CASA, FAA etc.
They should really look at how easy it is our days for a person to obtain a licence, due to a lower minimum hours quota. We cannot blame a newbie to think he/she is qualified to be a commercial pilot when the authorities say he/she is...You, I and most of the readers know this can never be due to the lack of practical experience even if a piece of paper says otherwise.
I would suggest the minima is raised to something substantial like 250-300 hours or so with definitely some instrument training a prerequisite, may be to the PIFR rating in OZ. May be some subsidies from governments and operators allowing the schools to produce a better employable pilot? a scheme whereby operators are subsidised up to 500 hours of a pilot 's employment from his/her graduation? and Insurance companies should really be helping as well as the premiums they charge operators and pilots are sometimes not too short of being criminal!
Anyway my 2 bits and yes it is damn expensive to get the extra add ons later in your life when you have commitments eh Stevy
