FB11,
Excellent post; many thanks. I entirely agree that...
If a flying club is simply a place where all responsibility is devolved to the low time PPL whose decision making can not be as sagely as a high time FI; whose safety net doesn't exist because there's no structure to take responsibility for checking that those about to fly aircraft are fit to do so then there is truly a deep rooted flaw in the supervision and duty of care afforded to new pilots.
Yet that is what happens. Sure, in some places FIs give informal advice, but that's all. And often that advice is plain wrong! And sometimes new PPLs don't even get that.
Many years ago, as a very new PPL(A), I booked an aircraft to fly from my home airfield to one with a much shorter grass runway with obstacles at either end. I'd never landed on grass, there was no wind at all, the grass was soaking wet, and I took full fuel! I checked take-off distances etc, and they seemed OK...but did I allow for my total lack of experience? Not at all. I asked around before I left. But nobody,
nobody, pointed out that maybe I needed either a better day or more experience or less fuel or all of the above. They said it was my decision, and to go for it. I did, and survived the trip...but can you imagine the AAIB report if I hadn't?
I, like Andrew, and like many, had been guilty of one thing, ...
picking the cheapest flying school on the field without checking the reputation of the people involved.
Incidentally, this flying school is long gone.
It happens, too often. Most of us survive, but how many don't?