Hugh Jarse
One of the reasons standards are atrocious is because you have a majority of sub-200 hour pilots attempting to teach.
This is demonstrably untrue.
Minimum for a CPL issue is 150 hours. An instructor course comprises a
minimum of 50 hours training. A NVFR rating is required prior to undertaking the Instructor course, however this may(sometimes) be completed as part of the CPL training.
Whilst I agree that many
new Grade 3 instructors are little more than safety pilot's, they soon improve. Or those that apply themselves do. I have trained dozens of instructors and agree that the CPL standard of handling and theory knowledge is falling. I often spend briefing time dragging theory knowledge up to an acceptable (to me) standard, when I should be teaching "how to teach".
One idea is a more centralised Instructor School. As in maybe one or two only in Australia, a full time live in course, say 2-3 months.
I occasionally come across some very senior instructors and CFi's with strange ideas too. For example, whilst discussing the techniques to use for hand swinging a prop to start an aircraft with insufficient battery power to crank, I was told that I
must have the master on otherwise the engine would not fire. You should have seen his face when I started it sans master on.
This from a CFI.
I know to be a Hang Gliding instructor or diving instructor one has to sit ALL the exams already passed along the way again and get very high marks (100% for Hang Gliding) and HGFA instructors must attend a training seminar/conference every year.
Some interesting ideas but once again where is CASA helping here, how much time and effort do they put in to training and safety education?