Originally Posted by
Piltdown Man
Attributing 'fault' to a pupil is a hard thing to do as they are really flying under a release given to them by their instructor.
I'd agree - I don't think it's reasonable to attempt to recover the uninsured losses from a student in a case like this as they are entitled to rely on their instructor's judgment as to whether they have the necessary skills to be released for the flight.
I think it's an entirely different situation post PPL. Once you have your licence, the responsibility for safe conduct of the flight is yours alone, and then it's reasonable that you should be liable for the excess in an incident like this.