This is the season when those that make their living by redefining FCL rules have 'port-and-wine-by-the-fire' meetings
in expensive 5* hotels with industry stakeholders (
not pilots under training or members of the general public ) they then rewrite LASORS 05 into 06
On the table at the moment is an introduction of an accessible ICAO IR like the FAA-IR for UK PPLs cos the JAA IR has such a low take-up rate (20 per annum in the UK out of 60,000 PPL's) this is
being promoted by AOPA
The ICAO MPL is being rolled out in 2006 and these pilots will then be trained on a single engined light aircraft before being put into a airbus/737 sim. The reason for this is that some reckon that after having spent £loads on an AIRLINE pilots licence then one should have spent some time in an AIRLINER at the pointy end rather that spending £loads doing NDB holds in a 70s build light aircraft. (btw NDBs are being withdrawn all over the world - out of date)
http://cat.texterity.com/cat/2005-4/?pg=12