I undertstand why a flying club manager or CFI may want these changes to put bums on seats. I also appreciate that 700 hour PPL may have more to offer than a 200 hour CPL. Beagle is not argung for the 700 hour PPL however. He is arguing for a 200 hour PPL without the CPL ground exams or class 1 medical, as per his post qouting Lasors. Yes, I'm sure we all know an experienced PPL who would make an excellent instructor. But what is stopping him or her doing the CPL exams and flight test? Money? In the case of the 200 hour PPL, perhaps this is the case. The 700 hour PPL would have difficulty saying they were short of cash. Please don't say they don't have the time. If they don't, how will they ever find time to instruct. Perhaps they couldn't cope with the ground exams? Need I say any more?
Beagle, Whopity et al, I hope I havn't misread your thoughts. As far as I can tell you are saying that a PPL with 200 hours flying around Florida including the long Navex etc is just suitable as a CPL with 200 hours. If so, there is something seriously wrong with the CPL syllabus and testing. After all it is the minimum requirement that is disputed issue here.
I couldn't agree more that P1 experience is invaluable, but this is an argument to increase the amount of P1 required, not reduce the training requirement. Incidentally Whopity your good 300 hour PPL FI student probably had at least 100 hours more P1 than the proposed minimum.
Shortstripper you may have a point about falling standards since the old 700 hour CPL requirement. My point is that some instructors here seem to be arguing for a futher reduction in the base level required to join the profession (I qualified under the old CAA system incidentally).
I wonder how many low hour PPL's there are out there sitting on their money intending to spend it on a 2 month trip to Florida so they can become a flying instructor. I wouldn't blame them for this. As VFE suggests, by then the market will be so short of 'suitable' candidates your local flying club won't be able to wait for Mr or Mrs 700 hours trained in the UK. The people who are holding back in hope are only making the shortage of instructors worse.
Lets not pretend this is anything other than a drop in standards to fill empty instructor positions. Necessary though it may be. It is for the industry (our employers) to argue their case, not us, as we are the only ones who stand to lose.