It seems strange to me that in the USA the vast majority of private pilots hold instrument ratings, whereas in Australia they do not. I think I recall reading the ratio is something like 80% to 20%. Given the huge safety benefit having instrument skills brings I wonder why this is so?.
There is also the question of cost. Higher costs limit the amount of flying a pilot can afford in a given year. Whats the old saying? "practice makes perfect".
A bit of a trawl around the US charter operators reveals their charter rates are somewhat cheaper than the operating costs of the same the aircraft in Australia.
I wonder why they can do things so much cheaper than us?
Given their private pilots appear to fly a lot more on average than we do and appear to hold better qualifications than we do is the US more safe than Australia?
There is no doubt that angle flight provides a vital service to the community that would be otherwise unaffordable. The alternative of committing to the roads is patently less safe. It would be a tragedy if an incident like this resulted in the usual knee jerk reaction of increased regulation making the service unviable.
Last edited by thorn bird; 29th Jun 2017 at 21:04.