Thing is Geoff I'm not sure by what metric supports the view that we are currently churning out a sub standard PPL (H)'s or that these come from low time FI's. From this:-
"It feels like we are in a downward spiral where low time low experienced people are turning out too many substandard helicopter pilots. "
Over the last 15 years the accident rate for PPL (H) has been going down and actually do nothing more than look at all helicopter accidents reported by the AAIB since the beginning of 2012. The average P1 time for these accidents is over 5200hrs and of the 38 reported incidents only 13 were flying on a PPL and there were just 4 student or training accidents.
So is it really as bad as its being suggested?