Oh dear. The usual aviation inconsistency is coming out here. People are complaining about the complications of JAR FCL and bemoaning the cost of revalidating their humble PPL, S/E piston rating or obtaining it in the first place. AOPA comes up with a reasonably constructive idea to try and answer one of these complaints and the self-appointed guardians of safety and aeronautical prudence knock it down with hysterical cries of "we're all going to die horribly if this happens". Sorry boys and girls but wake up and smell the coffee. I'm not a microlight pilot, but if you take the time to talk to some micro-lighters you'll find that it's become a much safer sport than when it first started. The aircraft might look like aerial rat's nests but they're efficient aircraft and are stronger than most of the tin-cans GA pilots fly in. Personally I think that anything that gets people started flying that's cheaper than the current JAR PPL should be looked at positively and not as a chance to stick the cauldron of oil on the burner to get it warmed up. There's to much bolox spoken about the death of UK GA. This might be a potential for reversing the perceived trend. Some positive stuff please.
My thoughts, aside from the rant above are that if it is implemented;[list=1][*] it be a fair-weather, day VFR only licence[*] a performance level be placed on what aircraft can be flown as P1[*] a radius restriction be placed from the point of departure[*] that the flying be supervised. This proviso to extend to group-owned aircraft. Perhaps syndicates could be setup with this in mind. This is to prevent the licence being obtained cheaply but then the holder being exploited by having to pay expensive club rates.[*] that the licence has a recognised and fair upgrade path to a full JAR PPL. In fact it should be one of the recognised paths to a JAR PPL. After all, how many students do you have who actually go out on supervised solo flights at the moment in fair weather, where this restricted licence would allow them to gain experience before straying further afield with an upgraded JAR PPL with it's added knobs and whistles?[/list=a]
Think on people. Is your living dependant on people learning to fly? If so I think the proposal deserves serious thought and not just rejection out of hand.
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0 to 2000ft in 10 minutes
[This message has been edited by climbs like a dog (edited 10 January 2000).]