This as going to come as a shocker. I was impressed by CAA!
I did my renewal in December and it cost me half of what it did the previous year and it took half the time to process it! I could not believe my good fortune and I believe there is finally some progress being made in making it easier to fly, rather than the old attitude of the "Committee Against Aviation".
There was a lot of valid whining in the past few years about the spiralling fees killing general / commercial aviation and I hope my experience with CAA is reflective of a change in attitude. I may be off the mark as I have been out of SA for the last few years but CAA sometimes deserves a bit of credit.
As for the FAA licence, I like their system. I never studied with a school to do the theory and it was definitely easier to do one examination, than the whole pile expected by SA CAA and the JAR, but it still involved a lot of studying and I dont believe its possible to pass all subjects by just studying the questions and answers. Some, yes, but not all.
The FAA flight test was very thorough and I found the standards to be consistent and fair. The system is designed to root out those who study the questions and answers only, one cannot fool a testing officer during a 3 hour oral examination of all aspects of the aircraft you are flying. I think that aspect of the test should be incorporated more consistently in the SA system. There are no shortcuts in the FAA flight test either but, once again, everything is fair.
The JAR/JAA system sucks! There is an elitist attitude without much to back it up. There is no credit for prior theoretical knowledge, no matter your level of experience, you WILL write all 14 examinations at an exhorbitant cost. The inconsistency is that some European countries pilots are looked down upon by other EU countries, due to lower standards, but only have to fill in a form at the local CAA to be issued a JAA licence. Appears to be a money making racket and I hope that it will improve when the JAA system changes next year, or later this year. I have found SA standards to be on a par with, and often better, than examples I have seen in the EU.
Safe flying, all is not greener on the other side of the fence. Jab