WestWind1950 would like the children to stop fighting, I wonder who forces him, or her, to read this thread anyway. I don't like the Weaver thread, so guess what, I don't read it.
There are two very different camps of pilots who are affected by the rule changes being discussed here, those who fly for pleasure and those who earn their living flying foreign registered aircraft. I think all would agree that to be able to fly the foreign aircraft the appropriate licence had to be obtained by the individuals, clearly the aircraft existed first and the employment opportunity came along thearafter. This actually happened to me whilst living in Turkey with 90 hours on a UK PPL. I dutifully went to the states, got myself a CPL/IR, CFII/MEI and returned to Turkey only to be told that they would not issue a work permit for that occupation. I returned to the UK and was offered a job on a "N" registered aircraft, no substitue for a bit of luck.
My other bit of luck was that I then went down the UK CPL route and that might well be my salvation in the future. I really feel for the guy's who could loose their livelihood due to the new reg's.
IMHO the purpose of this thread is to publicly discuss the merits of introducing rule changes that will have no significance on safety. The only changes being pilots, ab initio or otherwise, being locked into a training scenario that is inefficient and expensive with some previous choices removed.
The only effect all this is going to have will be European FTO's being able to operate without the competition of oversea's FTO's and the various European airspace administrations will enjoy more revenue.
Increased safety, NO. Increased jobs, NO. Increased expense, YES.