It would be nice if the old PPL instructor system was reintroduced.
PPL's like myself who, for reasons of family, jobs, ect cannot, or do not wish to fly commercially but who would love to instruct and help out. I won't get into the payed/unpaid debate other than to say that nearly all my instructors were PPL's, some payed, some not .... all very good too. I know that in France for instance many instructors are PPL's and many used to here until some bright spark decided they needed a CPL (or at least the paper exams). It says that to instruct an instructor has to demonstrate knowledge to CPL level. In the UK this is interpretted as "pass the ground shool exams" To do this now, you have to do compuslory ground school and then the exams themselves. Who in work or with a family can afford this in time, let alone money? The CAA could easily interpret the wording in a different way and therefore allow someone wanting to instruct to "demonstrate" appropriate knowledge in a different way. This could mean take the CPL exams but skip the compulsory ground school, or perhaps a stand alone exam?
Bring back PPL instructors I say!
SS