Was faxed a copy this afternoon from Banana Land.
Quite a sensationalist story for the Sunday morning breakfast table.
Some observations after skimming the copy for the first time;
1. Bills comments as Vice-president of AOPA are interesting considering that a vocal group within that organisation actually want PPL's to be able to hold Instructor Ratings!.
2. A number of the 'Fatal Crashes' listed are Ultralight/Gyrocopter/Homebuilt/Aerobatic and although equally tragic, really should not be listed as part of this article. Although the numbers involved are not great - it does add to the overall impact of the story.
3. Doug Edward's comments about a 'macho element' (unless he was 'mis-quoted') is demeaning to the professionalism in the Australian G.A. industry of the vast majority of high & low time pilots. Questionable judgement in some cases - yes, but 'Macho'?.
I would consider Qld's accident rate to be more along the lines of what Peter Gibson said; large distances and higher number of flights.
However, I do also agree that the training standards could do with a review. The change from a 180 hour CPL to 150 hour CPL was a mistake as the 'Integrated' course is abused by a lot of part time students as well as 3 year university students. The spirit of the 150 hour integrated course is as a full time course. More scrutiny or better clarification of the 150 hour course would see part-time students and Uni course students complete the 200 hour syllabus instead.