CpilotUK
Do you have supporting evidence for
"a huge percentage of fatal air accidents are down to pilots sometimes blatantly ignoring the rules of the air " ?
Most deaths are caused by flying the plane into the ground. En-route collisions are almost unheard of. Is not hitting the ground classed as a "rule of the air"? Most VMC CFITs are a combination of poor navigation in poor visibility (PPL-level navigation is often barely usable in the UK climate) and ignoring the MSA when trying to keep under a lowering cloudbase. Then you get a lot of airfield-proximity accidents, again not related to air law.
I would say 50% of PPL air law material is total c**p.
For example, how many airfields still operate the signals square? And of those that do, in how many cases a) they don't have a radio AND b) you don't have a radio? If you fly WW1 biplanes and don't carry a handheld with your headset plugged into it, then by all means you can learn this WW1 stuff. But you will be just slightly limited as to where you can fly!
Perhaps the most controversial errors are airspace busts. These are obviously a combination of poor navigation (see my note above re how inadequately nav is taught in the PPL) and not reading the chart properly. But that's another subject - the flight training business will never accept any syllabus change which will make a PPL look more expensive on their price list, or force them to fit and teach GPS.
By far the best investment for anyone doing a PPL is the PPL Confuser.