Tinstaafl,
I couldn't agree more, and FAA and the general US system must be doing something right, the air safety outcomes are head and shoulders better than Australia.
It is interesting to compare the approach to a BFR in US ( or NZ) compared to what is now seemingly required for the new Part 61.
In both the US and NZ case, the BFR concentrates on the areas where pilots kill themselves and their passengers, low speed handling, in short, concentrate on the stick and rudder skills --- and in my experience, the average standard of handling skills of a GA pilot in US leaves us for dead --- literally dead, have a looks at the stats.
What do we find here? Instead of 60-90 minutes of attention to the obvious, in AU, have a little practice cross country, where you can do at least one 180, as you turn around to come home. Do a couple of careful "approaches to the stall", but no stalls please, not required, and the instructor may have never done a full and exhaustive stalling exercise --- so he/she is not to happy about the idea. Some "steep turns" --- 35 degrees only please --- that's a steep turn??
In contrast, the US instructor has to be spin and recovery current. And like as not, a good proportion of the BFR will be with the stall warning light/horn on at large angles of bank with lots of power on --- to see if you can fly.
I always love the "some controlled airspace work" --- WTF- I have got many tens of thousands of hours in any class of airspace you can name --- so I need more straight and level practice in controlled airspace.And it is now being treated as a "license renewal", with a pass/ fail, and I rather suspect the likelihood of failure is directly related to the school's budget v. achieved revenue for the month.
No wonder two good mates of mine have recently sold their aircraft and bought yachts.
Tootle pip!!
Last edited by LeadSled; 27th Feb 2015 at 12:15.