Capt Arr,
You missed my point, I am not against snotty nosed kid instructors per see as they have to learn somewhere but I think there is a great wealth of talent out there un tapped that would make very good instructors if they did not have to pay out 1,000's dollars doing the CPL first. It is not a matter of just a dual check and an exam. You tell me who would be better at instructing the basics, a retiring Tafe teacher,LAME, tradesman, other teacher etc with 40yrs instructing in their given fields or the current system. Sure they would need a certain amount of flying experiance be it 1000hrs,500hrs whatever the powers that be decide first ,but after that why would anyone volunteer to do it at a club level if they had to spend there own money to get the CPL? Does this suddenly make you all knowledgeable? Afterall flying is not rocket science and at private level the theory can be all done in a couple of weeks, the maths is basic, and the entire exercise up to PPL providing the student has the funds can be done in well under 1year. Try learning a trade, even a basic one like bricklaying that quick let alone electrical, refrigeration, telecomunications etc.
My point is a tradesman,LAME, etc who has flown all over the country on jobs or for pleasure with say 1000 hrs is likely going to be a far better instructor and more experianced than someone with 10000hrs just doing circuits or in the training area. To prove my point you may remember the instructor who crashed a Baron ( I think) near Canberra enroute to the snow from Bankstown some 15yrs ago due to not allowing for the COG movement with the fuel burn off. He was on paper an experianced instructor with heaps of hours. When BASI looked into the matter it was found nearly all of his flying was done in single engine training aircraft in the circuit or training area.
Flying is not hard, in fact I believe easier than learning to drive merely because you have not got the amount of other traffic coming at you from all directions along with mixed speed zones and road conditions etc.
What flying does not allow is getting away with major errors.
Why not tap into the nations true wealth of knowledge,rather than pretend flying is something it is not, and reduce further these man made errors.