Teaching "real" flying
For the UK private pilot, post-PPL training seems heavily geared towards producing a certain type of pilot. Flying clubs market IMC and night ratings, "complex" aircraft conversions, and so on.
Realistically, someone learning to fly who follows this path is going to spend in the region of £10000 on getting his/her PPL and ratings. Once they've spent this money, it's going to cost several thousand pounds a year to keep IMC and night skills up to scratch.
All this is fine for those that want to fly IMC capable aircraft between reasonably well equipped airports. But I can't help thinking that there must be a lot of people who would like to learn some "grass roots" flying skills after getting a PPL, and for them the training is a lot harder to find.
Some flying clubs offer aerobatic training (or rather, AOPA aerobatic certificate training, which is part-way towards being the same thing), but aerobatics is not for everyone.
The UK has two enlightened bits of legislation which encourage cheap(ish) fun flying. The 28-day rule, which lets anyone open a private airstrip just about anywhere, and PFA-administered permits to fly for many of the aeroplanes that can use those private airstrips. But there seems to be a gulf between the skills of someone who has been through the normal flying club training, and the skills needed to enjoy cheap, fun flying. And there is no way to bridge that gap other than buying a share in an appropriate aircraft.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that a lot more people would be encouraged to fly, or to continue to fly, if we did things differently? What about allowing post-PPL training in a non-public transport certified aircraft? How about a "short strip" rating for less than the cost of an IMC? What about letting suitably experienced pilots give post-PPL instruction, without having to have passed the CPL theory exams? How about being able to rent "simple" aircraft? (It seems to work very well here in France).
In some recent threads, there seems to be a bit of condescension on the part of some people towards flying-club "spamcan" drivers; but there ought to be a structured way for the latter to get the skills that were probably once picked up automatically during basic training.
Any thoughts?