Chronue
Let me flip the question around
Why are there so many N reg aircraft in Europe and have been for decades and so many hold IRs ? while few PPL IRs were JAA ?
Surely its a demand thing like in any market place? If I offer a product which is better cheaper and easier to get why would I want something which was NO better more expensive and harder to achieve?
Remember many PPls are businessmen or have family and full time work commitments who don't have the time or inclination to spend months of evenings locked away from their families studying for exams which are full of unpractical stuff bearing little relevance to what they want to fly IFR.
Please don't say that the European IR or for that matter CPL or ATPL are better or turn out better pilots because no studies have indicated that WHATSOEVER and there have been many studies trying to prove we are better than you NAAAH
That is the sad thing with EASA who had a clean sheet to really advance aviation and GA in Europe. They could have taken the tried and tested FAA system improved it, adjusted it to suit European needs and pulled world aviation much closer together.
They could have saved the European tax payers a fortune instead they feathered their own nest their own jobs churning out the complicated mess and expensive Frankenstein monster they have created, but not for the benefit of aviation but for themselves and a few powerful pressure groups
Pace