Some very good inputs here. Thanks chaps!
Just to add my 2 cents. Clearly, as a newly released PPL or even newly released "any license", the new privilege does not mean one can do whatever one wishes. It takes a lot of time and experience to become comfortable with any new license, any new aircraft and to take things further than what training had the time for.
However, there is a problem with scaring the wits out of new pilots too. I fully agree they should be told about dangers and problems they will likely face, but this should not turn out into a "you'll never learn this" kind of attitude. These people have gotten the first step, but now it is time to go beyond that. Many never will tough, because they have been drilled to know exactly their home circuit or airports they have been to with their FI's, and they never even consider going further. Such pilots can have 500 hours or more and still be in the same kind of killing field of a 50 hour pilot, the moment they step outside the local flying area and venture off to other places.
I believe new pilots need to be encouraged to spread their earned wings, but be told in a positive manner how to do so safely. Hey, why not fly down to xyz airport today, it's good weather, the place is nice, just plan it well and do it. Far too many don't. I have met PPL's with over 1000 hours which have never left the country (and I live in Switzerland, which is really not very large), or whose flight log still contains only airports they have seen during basic training.
The second big killer I see is the fact that many PPL's are flying far too few. This has escalated massively in the last few years where costs have exploded. The 12 hour minimum per annum is not by any measure enough to keep proficient, nor is the 3 landings per 3 months if one wishes to carry passengers. 100 hours per year starts to look such that one reasonably knows what one is doing in an airplane and it will allow you to plan flights with a certain routine rather than making every single flight a doctoral thesis, if you get my meaning.
Lastly, transition to new airplanes mean things start again to an extent. A pilot may have 100 P1 Hours in his base trainer, however, when he transitions to the shiny new complex plane, he will be back to square 1 (or maybe 2) with his new ride. It was interesting and horrifying to read how many new PPL's in the US got themselfs killed with the new fast glass cockpit planes, but not really surprising. There is a heck of a difference between a Cherokee trainer and a Cirrus 22 or a Columbia 400! Even transitioning to something more conventional such as a Mooney or Debonair/Bonanza after flying 100 kt cruisers will come as a rude awakening.
Even ATPL's with 20k hours might return to the killing zone (and quite a few do) after returning to light aircraft in retirement or after long absence. Used to the power and superb systems of their airliners/biz jets, they may be in for a rude shock to figure out that IFR in a Trinidad is a whole different ballgame than in an Airbus or Boeing with all the bells and whistles. Some of these light planes, with basic or no automatisation, may actually prove a sight more demanding than flying high up and away with the 400 ton widebodies.
I have recently returned to the ranks of CPL and plan to regain my IR too after an absense of several years. Combined with a new aircraft type, coming back to skill test level was one gold plated s.o.b, compared to the days when I had been doing it regularly. I am well outside the "critical" total time by now, but I am still very much a beginner on my current aircraft. That is why I have set myself pretty strict limits to what I will do and what not, such as runway lenght, weather, range and other issues FAR beyond what the manual sais the plane can do. I'll start to go further once I am absolutely comfortable with what I am doing now, but not before. If that means that I have to get an FI along every time I need to position to my maintenance base (which has a short grass runway) then so be it, I am not ashamed of this, even tough some folks are thinking "coward" every time this issue comes up. But I won't do it until I feel comfortable.
A dear friend of old used a very short but to the point sentence to close his absolutely readable columns over in Avweb.
"Be careful up there!"
I think this sums it up nicely. Be careful, but enjoy it!
Best regards
AN2 driver