hey talklimited
my problem is that I am specifically comparing groundschool for the FAA licence with that for the JAR licence.
I dont think anyone would seriously argue that the FAA groundschool is as hard.
I am not suggesting that anyone is a better "pilot" than anyone else.
my groundschool instructor said that in his his opinion the the point of the groundschool from the CAA point of view was not to teach relevant knowledge as one might think, but to set a barrier of sufficient difficulty that would keep out the riff raff.
now I have seen loads of fine PPL helicopter pilots with good skills and knowledge. also I have seen many who were real "scumbags", the same guys who do dodgy charters on aircraft they are not rated on with a white shirt and gold bars the whole ego thing. but I have far less professional pilots who have overcome the barriers in front of them who were not honourable people.
disregarding the "right to work" I just dont think that that there should be "open skies" in this regard unless we have a similar grounschool standard, it was hard for me, I want a level playing field with people from other countries or my efforts are devalued !.