Luke Skytoddler,
No doubt you will be aware of the requirements of the Civil Aviation Act.
The pilot in Command of an aircraft shall-
(A) Be responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft in flight, the safety and wellbeing of all passengers and crew, and the safety of cargo carried; and
(B) Have final authority to control the aircraft while in command and for the mainteneance of discipline by all persons onboard; and
(C) Subject to section 13A of this Act, be responsible for compliance with all relevant requirements of this Act and regulations and rules made under this Act.
Now then in NZ I will concede that very little assistance is given by CAA to ensure all operators are aware of their responsibilities under the Act, but, in the event of any incident-accident this is the legislation they will all hide behind.
If you take it upon yourself to break any of the rules and regulations in this day and age, especially now that some support is possible through OSH, then you are the Author of your own fate, and deserve no thanks for perpetuating this system.
I am well aware that to argue for compliance to the regs may very well cost you your job, but there are channels now that make this an expensive exercise for such operators.
The operators can only create this environment when pilots will do virtually anything, including backstabbing, to get a few hours up.
I have much sympathy with your comments but for the most part they are directed at the wrong people. If the regulators made more efforts to ensure compliance with the regulations by the operators then the decisions on whether to go or not to go in the knowledge that if you dont your job is at risk, and if you do your licence is at risk then a lot of the stress of GA would be gone, and there would very likely be fewer accident reports to wade through.
Prospector