Ultralights are as good as GA aircraft, no problem.
Yawn..
RA-Aus aircraft just aren't the same as GA aircraft, fullstop.
This is mostly true.In a lot of ways RA planes(tecnams and Jabs anyway)are harder to fly because of the lack of inertia.When you do finally step into a 172 or an Archer you will find them a piece of cake(and a pleasure)
There is a great deal of fear in the GA community over the RA movement i.e membership booming, and more airspace being taken up with RA aircraft(their all out to kill us etc), and I think that many GA pilots have an image of 10 years ago when RA's poor safety record and terrible training standards were the norm.Its just not the case these days,although there is still a
long way to go in some "schools", but just go research the number of members over the last ten years vs the number of fatalities and serious accidents over the same period to see the
truth.
The vitriol that the uneducated portion of GA pilots show towards their RA counterparts is laughable..It will only get more humorous the more that RA takes the market share of Ab-initio training away from the overpriced sausage factories.If you want pleasant, financially pleasing
recreational flying in modern aircraft with minimal red tape then RA will be your thing, but just like GA I would research my pick of schools well..
As for the topic at hand..I am an RA member(with a GA CPL) who doesn't want all the ratings and endo's to be available to RA because I think in the end more than anything else it will take away the
Recreational element to that kind of flying and will end up with the huge problems that face anyone wanting to fly
for fun in the GA world.GA is just not set up at all well for non professional flying unless you are loaded and have a high threshold for bullsh1t of the CASA variety...
It is really good to be able to do a portion of your CPL time in RA aircraft..There is nothing wrong with it at all as long as you are working to the GA Syllabus.But a portion is more than enough as an RA only CPL syllabus wouldn't give the full experience needed with planes of a higher weight and inertia among other things.