Kestrel, I don't do flaming - but the points remain the same and I still haven't had a considered answer to any of them:
1. We now have different regimes for people flying the same (microlight)aircraft dependent on whether they hold an older (PPL) or newer (NPPL) licence. Recent Microlight pilots have no choice whether to hold an NPPL or not - it's the sole licence available.
2. It adds cost for no demonstrated benefit. No-one has produced any evidence to say that microlight NPPL holders have any more accidents than old microlight PPL holders. No one has produced any evidence that an instructor flight every two years would reduce the accident rate for either group.
3. The revalidation requirements for current microlight pilots are quite simple - 5hrs in the previous 13 months. This is not complicated. Of the 2500 or so NPPL licences issued, some 2000 or so are microlight pilots. The BMAA did not support the addition of an instructor flight. We seem to have 'harmonised' 90% of pilots with 10%.
I have no problem with putting forward some good practice in flying. Without trying I could think of half a dozen 'good ideas' that wold be useful to do as a pilot - none of them merit being made mandatory.
I strongly believe that anything that adds cost to our flying needs to be justified. Properly, with facts and figures.
How many people on the NPPL steering group actually fly on an NPPL?