"Flight Training 'Organisations' are an unnecessary government creation"
Yes I've often thought that. I can't see why if the instructor is appropriately qualified and the aircraft is suitably equipped why they simply can't teach a student? As at the end of the day they all have to demonstrate the appropriate standard to the CAA approved examiner.
And as for information that is required to get FTO approval such as the number of rooms, the size of the CFI office and the number of toilets. Well for the life on my I can't see what relevance it has.
An example of this is I split my time between a FTO and a rf. During the week I could be offering CPL training and at the weekend I could be instructing at the rf in exactly the same aircraft from exactly the same airfield using exactly the same briefing room.
Yet at the weekend I'm not allowed to offer CPL or BIFM training.
The only difference I can see is one organisation hasn't paid the CAA a wodge of cash and produced a load of utterly irrelevant manuals.
And as far as I am aware I don't deliver a lower standard of instruction at the weekends. There is one difference however. The added cost of all the manuals, audits, visits etc adds an extra 62 quid per hour onto the hire cost for the FTO.