Aussiebert you wanted to hear an average student pilot out
actually i've heard at least a dozen, i'm an average student pilot myself, and spend a lot of time with other student pilots
While i agree with a lot of whats been said in this thread, i know i started out as a very nieve 17yr old, as did most of my fellow students. Beofre 'discovering' things like pprune, there really was no way for us to know what we should be doing. We've all made mistakes along the way, but at the end of it all we've leart a lot. Still heaps to learn of course.
If someone is determined enough they will make it though training, i've noticed that from when i started to where i am now, theres probobly only half of us still going. The simple fact of the matter is we have no basis for comparison in regards to the quality of our training
As part of the course i do, we fly with a minimum of grade 2's, which is good and well but the grade 2's we fly with were still training when we all started our course.
Do you really need a guy with charter experience to teach you ops of controls, circuits, etc? Not in my opinion.
I beleive if your being trained as a commercial pilot, you should be trained by someone with experience in that feild. Same goes for Twin and IFR flying.
I don't mind giving a 200hr guy the chance to train me, as long as its something simple. After all in the not too distant future i'll be out there trying to get a job, and i think what goes around comes around.
Back to the topic, sure a lot of guys come out with no idea, but is that entirly the fault of the guy with no idea? If he has no idea, how would he know that stuff like having a DG cert, knowing how to change spark plugs, fuelling aircraft, pumping tyres etc is needed?
If there is a bunch of stuff you want people to know, give people the chance to learn. Do you really think an engineer wants a dozen students in his way? not likely