I've just added a comment on the SID/STAR ban issue on the EIR.
However, on a quick skim of the TK syllabus (few people are going to read the 150+ pages) I see a whole load of garbage e.g.
"State where flight level zero shall be located"
What kind of a question is that?
There are quite a few more. In a minute or so I found a whole pile of total garbage which will be a b*gger to memorise without a QB.
Whether this is all a step forward depends on where one stands. What has happened is that EASA has shafted the whole FAA licensed pilot community, which are basically Europe's highest-hour, highest-currency, best-equipped, and probably safest pilots, and has now given a bit back, and the "bit back" is being picked over like it is some kind of treasure trove.
Overall, it is a giant step backwards for all the existing pilots because even they have to sit the near-total-bollox exams, for absolutely nothing, nowt, zilch. But yeah it could be worse. EASA could have banned all PPL/IR flight, and for that we must be eternally grateful
It
is a step forward for ab initio IR pilots, because the new IR is significantly more doable, but it could have been a lot more relevant. What we will have is what we have today under the JAA IR which is a system turning out pilots who can fly IFR from exactly nowhere to exactly nowhere else, because nearly all the theory was absolute crap, and the training was just to pass the flight test which itself bears little relevance to going somewhere.
It's a missed opportunity.