USFS carding is a joke. They sent a guy down to the Gulf of Mexico from Boise, ID, to card us. He had never been in or near the model we were flying, and had no idea even how to start it. All he wanted to see was slope landings, which are seldom required on offshore platforms. It was a complete waste of his and our time, but he got a vacation on the Gulf.
EMS pilots are supposed to be trained and checked by the operator. Carding is just a customer requirement, with the government being the customer. We have quite a few washouts in training, more than one would expect from experienced pilots, and we get annual recurrent training, just like everyone else. I do agree that the recurrent should include night checkrides, but that isn't likely to happen. The FAA cannot, by law, prevent or delay flights, so there is no way they can ride along with most operators. They could theoretically require field checkrides, but they have to justify those, again by law, and it's not that easy. If they're not going to ride along, what good is a night inspection? The FAA is doing what they can, and my main complaint is the slow progress of NVG approvals. I want those, but it's going to be a year or two before I see them, at the rate they're approving them.