Hmmm, maybe it is time for a pause and a rethink, guys.
In the USA (a little backwater which nevertheless seems to have the majority of the world's aviation activity, and probably about 90% of the world's GA) you can
- pop into your nearest school and sit the PPL written (1), and fly there and get the PPL
- pop into the same nearest school and sit the IR written (1), and fly there and get the IR
- pop into the same nearest school and sit the CPL written (1), and fly there and get the CPL
- pop into (usually) the same school and sit the ATP written (1), and fly there and get the ATP
Same school and probably the same instructor.
It's obviously a terrible system because the USA is covered in aircraft wreckage, and the approaches into LHR have to be regularly cleared of bits of N-reg 747s.
I've done the first three myself and I really worry because I have just read all the CAA Safety Sense leaflets, especially #25, and every time I fly, 100% on GPS of course, I worry that I am going to kill myself, having passed through this terrible system.
What can be done about this terrible state of affairs?
But, hey, EASA is on the right track with its current proposal, under which an ICAO (non JAA) ATP with 20,000 hours in everything imaginable including a Cessna 150, cannot fly an EASA-reg Cessna 150. Well, they will let him do it for one year. But this applies only to EU residents. If this ATP is not resident in the EU, he's OK. Obviously this will really increase safety by preventing all those dodgy foreign ATPs flying the gold-plated-maintenance EU planes, with every washer having come with an EASA-1 form (yeah, right, that's another bollox pretence nobody will talk about).
Europe is all about protectionism. Protecting domestic businesses and protecting national CAA and "professional" flying school jobs.