toptobottom
It was clear to me that the US needs far tighter control over who can fly what and when; it's amazing to me that there aren't more accidents like this...
I couldn't disagree more.
IMHO, the FAA has generally got the degree of regulation about right. No system is perfect, but it's the best I know having looked closely at various jurisdictions over many years.
Perhaps the explanation by
birddog will make it less amazing to you:
The US has a pretty mature approach to Self Regulation, that works pretty effectively across various types of legislation... Every so know and then people/organizations need to be reminded of their self regulation obligations yes, it does not mean the right to self regulate, when it works for 99.9% of the time is at fault.
Many British pilots complain about the volume of our rules and regs (I note you say you don't) but I've long believed that many Brits actually like rules and regs - despite what they say.
Perhaps it's a symptom of our 'nanny knows best' culture.
(My theory has been strengthened by reading discussions in various forums on PPRuNe over many years. When a British pilot asks if it's legal to do something, he's usually inundated with a variety of reasons why he can't because it would be illegal - many of which display extraordinary and tortuous ingenuity. In contrast, very few people use the same degree of effort or ingenuity into coming up with a way in which the objective could, perhaps with a minor variation, be achieved entirely legally.
I've found this negative attitude to be particularly true of PPLs.)
FL