We are killing aviation by overregulation...
Me no understand??? I live in a country that is probably even more regulated than the UK. Yet I can get onto the ramp of an international airport (my homebase EDDS for example) by just showing my license to a safety person who will also x-ray my bag. Then I can take off VFR after just two short calls on the radio and fly in an almost straight line to places like Hamburg, Vienna (Austria), Strassbourg (France), Lelystad (Netherland) at any height between 500ft AGL and FL100. And land at my destination after two more short radio calls. Without filling in a single sheet of paper, without talking to anyone enroute (if I don't like to). As PPL holder, my whole "paperwork" would consist in a visit to the doctor every five years (depending on age) and a documented flight of an hour with an instructor every two years. And a line of text in the aircraft log and my personal logbook after every flight.
"Overregulation" and "killing an industry" is something completely different in my understanding.
What I love about flying? The views mainly, the sensation of lifting off the ground (every time again! especially when Mr. Pratt and Mr. Whitney sit in the back) and the challenge to use my (more or less developed) piloting skills in less-than-easy conditions. And of course the fact that after many years I was able to turn this former hobby into my main source of income. I do not even find commercial flying under EU-OPS overregulated or paperwork-heavy, at least not from the pilot's side. Flight planning and preparing of documentation is almost comletely automatic, during flight I have to record a couple of readings and after landing fill in the usual line in the tech-log and sign in two places. All this was much, much worse when I started 20 years ago!
Happy landings,
max