Whilst in general, I'm with Jock about over-reliance on technology and the possibly tenuous airmanship of a few Cirrus pilots
Apologies for the thread drift, but I'd like to pick you and MJ up on this. I have had a bee-in-my-bonnet about this recently.
I attended a UK Instructor refresher seminar recenty for the first time. It was excellently organised and the wealth of experience both amongst presenters and attendees was very high.
There was little or no actual content or discussion that might not have been present 30 years ago or 90 years ago for that matter. Hours were spent on the minutae of various PFL methods. The only mention of new technology was the inevitable remark of "over-reliance" on it and the nodded mumbles of assent from most of the rest of the group.
It's an indictment of a PPL training culture, led from the top of the GA establishment, that seems obsessed with the "standards" to which an obsolete training paradigm of various "exercises" are delivered. If the aim of PPL training was to produce "cadets" flying in the local area in obsolete aircraft under the structured control of a quasi-military "flying school/club", it serves admirably. However, it fails pretty dismally in actually teaching people to exercise PPL privileges across the broader range of GA activities they might want to be involved in.
At the same time, people regularly crash light aircraft in the UK using methods and equipment which are dismally obsolete by the standards of modern aviation - see the Blackpool PA28 fatal ditching a few years ago, or the (thankfully non-fatal) training aircraft that crashed at night into the Yorkshire Dales last year on a navex whilst being true to the spirit of "not relying on modern technology". One presenter, in the context of infringements, reported that half the PPLs that came to him to rent an aircraft didn't know how to use a transponder. I am sure every one of these had their 1hr-with-an-instructor in the previous 2 years.
The problem in UK GA is an under-reliance on technology, especially in the training environment. It's one thing being 5-10 years behind modern aviation. I could just about see that in the early 2000s when glass cockpits, BRS and GPS were new. But, now in 2012, to be droning on about over-reliance whilst teaching PPLs nothing except a course that could have been written in the 1930s is a disgrace.
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest, it's just the mindless way that phrase "over reliance on technology" keep popping up in the UK.
ps. PeterH - I owe you an apology. I did my PPL in the 1980s in the UK and I thought it was a pretty good course. Therefore I have disagreed with you over many years about UK PPL training and its "fitness-for-purpose". Some recent experience makes me realise you are right....