I know that I've commented on this before; then my comments were mistakenly held as a general criticism of US PPL training. This was a misunderstanding;I was complaining at the specific level of so-called training given to several PPLs in the US who I'd subsequently been converting in the UK.
However, there seem to be several factors involved:
1. Fuel is much, much cheaper in the US.
2. GA is encouraged in the US; in the UK it is grudgingly tolerated if you're lucky!
3. The weather is more predictable in the US.
4. It is easier to set up business in the US.
5. Accommodation is cheap and plentiful in the US; in the UK only business people use hotels etc apart from holiday makers, because you can normally get from where you live to where you're going within one day virtually anywhere in the UK.
6. Aircraft used for training in the US have less-stringent A&E maintenance requirements than they do in the UK - and are cheaper to acquire in the first place.
Put all this together and it is easy for an unscrupulous school with a 'tame' examiner on the payroll to set up in business as a PPL farm and churn out 'instant PPL' pilots who really haven't been given adequate training and who have only passed the Skill Test by being examined by the tame examiner who is in the pocket of the PPL farm. Nothing to do with FAA/JAA politics, just market economics. It is obvious that if you can peddle your flying school as being able to provide a JAR-FCL PPL cheaper and quicker than it would be able to in the UK, then you're going to attract larger numbers of applicants. Now get greedy and employ cheap and dodgy instructors, cut down on your maintenance costs, get your students solo asap to struggle through the course with the minimum number of dual hours so that the 'instructor' can 'instruct' another poor $od. Pay your tame examiner by the Skill Test rather than give him/her a salary....it all adds up.
Pesonally, I can't understand why, if you can't take a UK driving licence test outside the UK, it should be acceptable to take a UK flying licence test outside the UK! I also think that there needs to be some convergence between the FAA and JAA; some of the JAA 'theoretical knowledge' requirements are simply barking, perhaps the FAA goes too far the other way. The only way the UK can compete in the current climate is to slash fuel duty and VAT for training flying. The National PPL will also aim to reduce costs; it is hoped that suitable caveats will be put in place which will prevent 'unscrupulous' foreign flight schools trying to train pilots for the NPPL. This will not be 'restrictive practice', but a safety initiative. All training organisations, FIs and FEs intending to teach for the NPPL will have to be approved by the NPPL governing body. So that nasty piece of work and his smart@r$e lawyers itching to sue can think again - you know who you are!!
[This message has been edited by BEagle (edited 31 March 2001).]