Re-write the PPL syllabus
Okay, there's a lot of experienced pilots here - some of whom are instructors. Hopefully most of us can remember back to when we learned to fly. That was probably to a syllabus that hasn't changed much since about 1950.
So, I was wondering, if we leave the current 45 hours alone, what would we regard as "about right" for a new PPL syllabus, if we were starting from scratch?
I'll throw in my starter for 10:
Writtens: get rid of all the "terminology stuff" in the technical papers, switch to more about how light aeroplanes actually work,bin the cobblers "janet and john" aerodynamics, make met more about how to interpret safety of flight from forecasts. Air law to include permit aeroplane and pilot maintenance/ownership rules. So far as possible make it all open book so that people are showing they know how to look things up, rather than memorise pointless stuff like where a country's airspace starts and ends. Bring in some airmanship/CRM somewhere, probably in the currently rather lightweight HPL.
Hrs 1-15, basic handling, RT, circuits, emergencies use of checks, aiming for solo about hour 15. (Much as it's been since the 1920s - that bit works).
15-20, initial nav training - old fashioned DR stuff.
21-25, emergencies, lots of emergencies. Average sortie length about 45 minutes, lengthy briefs and debriefs. And real emergencies - not just the seldom-seen engine fire/failure - radio failure, jammed flaps, control restriction, the sort of stuff that actually happens.
25-35, integrated nav (using all the kit in the aeroplane from NDB to GPS, integrating with DR into true combined nav), with regular emergencies and complex RT along the way. Average sortie length here about 90 minutes.
36-40, airmanship, landings and circuits at different types of airports: to cover short grass strips and a busy mixed-traffic controlled airport as a minimum, airspace crossing, more practice emergencies along the way,
41: basic appreciation of how to fly on instruments - get rid of the deadly "180 out of cloud" which will kill most low hour pilots, replace with "descend/climb out of, maintaining wings level"
42: mandatory hour in a substantially different type, including briefing on how to read and learn your way into a new aeroplane type.
43-45: two short test profiles
46: test: which now does partially ded-reckoned nav, and partly fully-integrated nav, enhances airmanship, the student doesn't know what emergencies they're going to get, and those emergencies must be within normal flight, not at a special bit at the end.
G