Unbelieveable - yet again the Authority simply work out how much their "costs" are and divide them up amongst the captive market instead of questioning whether their costs are too high. How about starting from scratch and calculating prices from a "value for money" point of view?
1) £238 to get a JAA licence that I didn't actually want to convert - it's a single piece of paper with a different date on it for heaven's sake!
2) How can it cost nearly £ 1,300 per year to administrate a small flying school providing CPL modular courses? Even if you do 10 courses a year, that is another £130 each candidate has to pay, just to pay for the lunch room at Gatwick.
3) Another blinder is charging £172 per hour to review manuals. Who is doing the reviewing and why are they worth three to four times as much as the Flying Instructors who are actually doing the training.
It's time the Authority stopped and looked at the damage they are doing to the UK training industry through over regulation and a pricing structure that bears no relation to the margins achieveable.
As evidenced by the Cabair's situation, most training will soon be carried out in the US, as no-one will be able to afford to train in the UK. Thanks for the support CAA, I hope you will be pleased when you have put us all out of business!