Originally Posted by RadioSaigon
paid less than the pimply 15yo Macca's trainee that hands over the $2.95 burger that probably represents the most nutritious food they can sustainably afford. [...] Exactly where did the regulators expect the "I'll fly for free" attitude to wind up?
I agree, and I think everybody would, that instructors are not paid sufficiently (sometimes, at all) to remain instructors, and that this leads to high proportions of largely inexperienced instructors.
However, I fail to see how this is a problem that a regulator can fix.
It's an international problem, the same all over the world it seems, and if one country's regulator steps in to mandate some sort of defacto minimum wage for flight instruction or other measure (what other measure can there be?), then it would have one effect, drive most schools out of business as students went overseas. This is particularly true here in NZ where I think it's safe to say that most flight schools are largely training foreign students.
The only way regulators could make a real workable difference, is if it's done globally at the ICAO level, of which there is not a hope in hell.
The sad truth is, that it's a problem that probably can not be fixed, not as long as pilots rate themselves so lowly that they will work for absurd low wages and poor conditions in order to hour build. You can't blame schools for minimising expenses, especially not in this economic climate.
I'm sure it wasn't always like this, but the horse has bolted and it's too late to close the gate.