FFF,
Agree totally.
Why not have a 'national' medical allowing a holder to exercise the privileges of his / her JAA PPL but only in the UK airspace. Then the CAA can relax the standards to their hearts content....I think too much emphasis is placed on medical checks. Take a look at the FAA system, where a Class 1, ATP, medical is roughly equiv to the JAA class 2, certainly no more stringent. And the irony is that you get just as many pilots 'die at the wheel' whether they have an FAA or JAA medical certificate.
Secondly, if the NPPL is going to be a 'serious' licence, why not let Microlight / Glider hours count towards the NPPL at a rate of 50- 100%. At the moment you can get a 'discount' of upto 10 hrs or 10% (i think) towards the JAA PPL if you have Micro PIC hours. Why not make it 50% or more, lets face it it is not that much more difficult to fly a PA28 or a microlight, just slightly different techniques. So if you have 50 hrs PIC in a microlight then 25 hrs of this will count towards the NPPL. This would really cut the training costs down.
The NPPL is not for me though, I want a licence allowing me to fly in the US, France and Europe, as well as in IMC and at night. If however there was an ICAO recognized NPPL which allowed all these things, or even a Private IR rather than IMC rating, then I would be VERY interested.
Cheers
EA