Flybymike wrote:
"However, I am not shooting the messenger here, honest.... ".
Thanks, I have enough armour plating to take part in a joust....hardened by years of bows and arrows from all directions.
We have tried to construct a modular system whereby a particular licence can be an end in itself for the applicant, and not, as the JAA system seemed to design, as a first step of a PPL assuming all PPLs wanted to realise ATPL ambition. Though the JAA IR transported to EASA still has to be sorted. The LPL (two varieties - Basic to satisfy the powerful French lobby outwith and within EASA, and 'Full' LPL) are designed for air sports and the lighter end, in line with several NPPLs in Europe. The core ICAO compliant PPL - necessary for member states to satisfy ICAO requirement - is the equivalent, but with some lighter touches, of the JAR PPL (A) and JAR PPL (H) with the addition of parallel licences specific to gliders. Not that we need ICAO licences in gliding (generally) and balloons / airships, for which a JAR licence did not exist.