Anyone have any views on the effect of the regulatory regime on training?
A friend is training at the moment and it is rare to have the same instructor twice running. With such fragmentation it's no surprise that unexamined skillls get missed.
Part of the blame lies IMHO at the feet of the CAA for their decision years ago that FI's needed to hold a CPL or higher in order to be paid.
A PPL/FI is every bit as qualified to instruct as a CPL/FI yet he is unable to recover the costs of obtaining and maintaining his rating. If he wants to do so he must get a CPL and hold a Class 1. Net result? Instruction is effectively limited to those primarily interested in commercial aviation who are merely filling in while looking for a "proper" job, costs are higher than they need to be and instructors ditch their students at the sniff of a job or interview.
It does the "self improver" no favours either. If he were able to be paid for instructing as a PPL/FI he could defer his entry into CPL/ATPL training to a time when he had more experience, could gain more from the training, and have better prospects of getting a job on completion. He'd also avoid the expense of keeping his unused commercial ratings current while building his hours.
PPL training takes place in a benign environment (students don't fly in unsuitable conditions). It's not the same as Public Transport and shouldn't be subject to the same restrictions.
Mike