Having flown in all three countries; may I comment? Basically; “it is different strokes for different folks!” First of you must understand the different mandate of the various regulatory authorities. In UK the CAA’s mandate is safety and security of the aviation system. If nothing fly they would be happy because nothing would crash. The FAA’s mandate is the ‘promotion’ of civil aviation which means that they wear, IMHO, two incongruous hats: one is the promotion / ease of use of the system and the other is safety. They are, again IMHO, between a rock and a very hard place, especially given the regulatory system in the US; where regulations can be passed by Congress which make absolutely no sense at all. Transport Canada fits somewhere closer to the UK model but it is also responsible for all modes of transport.. .The UK ground exams from PPL on up are nit-picky overkill. We do have very PRACTICAL ground exams and flight tests. My last with a TC examiner included a baulked landing in a very confined area, a jammed rudder, 180 autorotations from both directions. Subsequent company check rides have included jammed collective, full-on autorotations - close didn’t count; he wanted, and got it, in the top half of the “3”. Was it excessive? NO. . .Full on autorotations - absolutely; have done them at night and on floats. I credit one of the float sessions with saving my and the passengers necks(or at least backs), as the engine of a Bell 206 quit about four weeks later and I went onto glassy water near a very inhospitable shore. It is very much an instructor’s call when to do it with a student. The instructor must be current.
Single-engine IFR; why not? Would I want to do it in my Bell 47 with ‘steam’ driven instruments of forty years ago - NOT ! In a well equipped Bell 407 or EC 120 / 130 with a (now fairly) reliable turbine engine - absolutely! There are a lot of one-off items that I would rather not have quit than the engine. We practise engine failures - and they are a doddle- but when did we last practise losing tail-feathers?