This seems a little harsh on the PFA. There is a 4 seater currently approved by the PFA and it is not a British design and it is not powered by a Rotax! Most of the new designs being put forward to the PFA are lightweight efficient designs powered by Rotax engines. Not may people want to lug around an engine designed in the 1940’s in their sleek new composite machine. Most of the Rotax powered aircraft will leave the current production stuff for dead in terms of speed, short field performance and economy. I am building an MCR01 Club, which was designed in 1998, The first UK example flew in the UK in 2000. That is a pretty quick approval time!
Having said all that there is one element of the PFA I do not understand. I run a software company, which provides a standard package. Some of my customers spend 100,000’s having this modified. 80% of my support problems stem from the 5% of product, which is non-standard. The PFA seem to take a design, which has many 100’s flying, and require modifications. Because the UK market is so tiny, a lot of manufacturers do not bother pursuing approval. The ones that do end up selling five or six units a year of a modified version of their standard offering. This puts up the price significantly. What I have never seen is a set of accident statistics, which shows that the 100’s flying in the rest of the world are less safe than the modified ones flying in the UK.
Fortunately for me the MCR0 1Club is very nearly standard, with only minor changes required.