On 2008-03-31, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
They also have very few good handling exercises there and most brits
have no clue as to how to do a crosswind landing.

And it's utterly lamentable.

They don't do things like turns around a point, and for the commercial
and other advanced ratings, have no equivelant of the lazy eight,
chandelle and what not. It shows in their flying. They're REALLY BIG on
mindless procedure.

Spot on. And it's why I will never bother getting a UK-issued rating,
and stick with my FAA ratings.

In my opinion, the regulatory system here practically has blood on its
hands - the regulations are making things significantly LESS safe, not
more safe. And then they try and fix that by adding MORE regulations,
that makes things less safe again.

Handling is made second class to how to talk on the radio, for instance.
Last time I looked, aircraft flew using the principles of Bernoulli and
Newton, not Marconi and Faraday. Stupidity like having to fly a 2nd
altimeter to fly airways, but not allowed to give it a separate static
system - and if we have to fill a hole in the instrument panel, I'd far
rather it be a backup attitude indicator.

When I returned here from living in Houston, I had planned to get my
commercial and flight instructor tickets so I could do some flight
instruction here. I soon found out all the mindless bureaucracy involved
and decided not to bother.

I *love* flying here, though, it's a beautiful place to fly, and in the
real world, it works pretty much as everywhere else, and ATC aren't the
monsters that flight instructors would have you believe. However, if
anyone asks me what they should do to learn to fly - I tell them to take
2 months off and go to the USA, and don't even bother with a JAA ticket
unless you want to fly for the airlines.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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