Park in the Belgrano and switch modes - why should GA be developed?
Effectively, what proportion of any of the last ten years of CPL/ATPLs spent any time in GA?
Is there a case to be made that as the vast, vast majority of pro pilots trained will go into an airline flight deck farting around with pretending to be a self briefing, route planning, met gathering single handed IFR pilot a completely invalid and expensive exercise?
A one arm Florida suntan hour building doesn't count as developing UK GA.
Pro flying or qualifying for it is totally and utterly divorced from GA. The fact is that airline guys like me with a foot in both camps are complete freaks and statistical anomalies in the CAA's eyes - and they are right.
Anyone who works in a significantly sized UK airline knows that the guy who flies anything, anything at all, outside of work forms the tiniest of minorities.
Lets train for reality not how we wish it was. That means a different track for PPL/IMC/IR GA CPL versus what the rest of us do.
You'd never accept an astonomer as also being an astrologer as anything other than a joke about a dyslexic but that's exactly what Issac Newton was if you actually read his works rather than revised and respectful history. He saw them as part and parcel of the same thing. It's now impossible to take someone seriously if they claim to be both.
GA doesn't do anything in their eyes and it's perfectly understandable. The numbers do not lie. There are very few GA savvy blokes there and they aren't in sexy departments. Meanwhile the Jumbolina accident report put paid to any flight ops inspector loudly encouraging us to put time back into training. The liability effect, legal or career wise made it a non starter even at companies where you fly nowhere near 900 hours. End Ex.
Rob