G'day sd,
I can speak with a bit of knowledge on this subject having been a morse operator in the army and also taught it to other students. Unfortunately, there is not going to be a quick way of being competent at morse, even at the slow speeds required for pilots licences.
I know that probably the best method is going to be one of repetition. We used to do it something like this:
Starting with 6 letters those being F P L U X Y and receiving each letter twice. There should be a gap initially of about four seconds between each symbol. Ideally a training tape which has a voice confirmation of the symbol after a few seconds is best. The trick is to write down the letter each time you hear the sound. For example get into the habit of Foxtrot being "di di dah di" as opposed to ..-. It is the sound which you have to instinctively interpret rather than what it looks like when written graphically.
It's a little like the difference between looking at a keyboard to type or instinctive touch typing. The ultimate result being speed.
After you have mastered the first 6 letters then you can introduce more letters of the alphabet, but only two or three at a time. This way you continue to consolidate on those letters already instinctively learned.
DO NOT introduce more letters until you can receive those already learned without the need to think about them or have spoken confirmation.
Correct me if I'm wrong but just be glad you only have the letters to worry about and not numbers, punctuation and barred symbols.
Boring pain in the butt repetition is going to be your only saviour.
I am available at short notice to travel to UK (Business Class of course) to assist all you morse cripples.
ps. am just in the middle of downloading a program called numorse from:
http://www.alaska.net/~buchholz/soft.htm
Will try it out and let you know.
[This message has been edited by Islander Jock (edited 05 October 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Islander Jock (edited 05 October 1999).]