In rec.aviation.student WJRFlyBoy wrote:
I have been reading the various threads about spins, forced landings, etc
and talking with CFIs. The road to a PPL is preset in requirements by FAA.
I see that most people are happy to do nothing more than that. Outside of
the cost factors, I find this much more than curious considering the
consequences. You can get killed, that one keeps jumping out at me

I am asking the group for assistance in developing a list of instructional
and solo experiences, testing, mandatory reading.....if you ran the FAA,
what would you require in a near-perfect world that a PPL would require? I
am a zero-hour wannabe pilot FYI

Outlandings and assembly/disassembly. The PTS covers both in extremely
light detail. I would like to see much greater detail applied to both. In
particular, I had never assembled or disassembled a glider, aside from
helping to hold up wingtips and such, until after my checkride. I think
every student should be taken to the point where he can be the lead on
assembly or disassembly, at least for one particular type. He should also
be able to walk through an outlanding from start to finish, including
dealing with locals and police and handling the retrieve crew.

Of course this is pretty glider-specific. The equivalent for "normal"
flying would, I imagine, be how to travel with a plane, how to deal with
courtesy cars and arrange transportation at the destination and so forth,
which I've seen talked about here as lamentably un-discussed during
training.

For a start, I won't begin my first instruction until I can do the
following:

In my unsolicited opinion, you're doing it all backwards. Learn to walk
before you try to run. The flying isn't the hardest part, it's the easiest
part. It's just a physical skill, like driving a car.

Pass all tests with a 95% minimum

Your understanding will be shallow without any experience to base it on.
You may pass the test but the knowledge won't be very useful.

Handle with ease all traffic control and similar commo

Ability to handle it in your head (or even in a sim) and ability to handle
it while managing a complex machine are two very different things. I
couldn't even begin to count the number of students I've seen who can tell
you exactly what a radio call should sound like when you talk to them on
the ground, but who completely botch it when they do it in the air.

Dissect the anatomy of my training aircraft

This is going to be pretty hard to do if you aren't getting it and around
it. Book learning isn't going to let you do even a halfway decent
preflight, much less "dissect the anatomy" of anything.

Understand what and how the instrumentation works (shortcomings included)

You may understand the principles involved but I don't think you'll really
understand how they work until you actually use them.

Own all the fundamentally necessary flight gear (i.e carry-ons in flight
bag or on person)

How will you know what to buy until you've started flying? Personally I'm
still trying to find the right bag and the right way to store things for
taking to the airport and for taking in the aircraft, and I've had my
ticket for nearly a year and have about 60 hours total time.

Obtain hours in flight simulation

As has been discussed elsethread, pointless.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software