Instructors, a rare breed indeed!!
I just wanted to canvas the forum on a fact that was worrying me for a while and seems to be getting worse. Two airfields I fly from seem to be in dire straights on the training side due to the lack of instructors. The airlines now seem to have hoovered up the long time instructors and the prospect of shelling out serious money for a CPL and an instructor rating seems to now be hitting hard and killing off the career flying instructor. I presume the multi pilot licence to be introduced will make the situation even worse.
The pre BCPL days of having the required hours and then doing just the flying instructor course seemed to work much better and gave the part timers a chance. I know AOPA were looking at the instructor rating and the need for a CPL, a licence which I believe is totally unecessry if you want to remain an instructor. All the best instructors I have flown with have all been of the pre BCPL variety.
Is the instructor shortage starting to hit elsewhere across the UK and does anybody know any more of the AOPA findings/recommendations?
Nick