Post by GregBut the final straw for me was not the CAA directly, it was the reports that
aviation insurers are now refusing to pay out on third party claims if they
can argue that the pilot failed to follow just one guideline, even if it's
connection with the claim is tenuous at best. This means my family could
lose everything because of a single mistake I make, and that's not an
acceptable risk. They should be made to pay regardless just as they are for
motor policies, but where's the incentive to change the law?, after all that
would encourage GA 8-(.
You should ask for details of what actually happened. I had one large
claim a few years ago (ground incident) and got paid out without a
question. I have not heard of insurers being unreasonable.
What does happen is rumours, plenty of them in GA, and they spread at
a great speed on the various aviation forums. A lot of the stuff
written on these forums is bollocks. You need to get the details. Then
you might find that the pilot actually had an expired medical, or some
other "small detail" like that.
You are right the cover isn't unconditional 3rd party like motor
insurance is. One has to be careful to have the paperwork in order.
For example airworthiness can be clobbered by any one of a number of
documents not being in order. But this is not rocket science.
Post by GregYes I'd already ruled out the NPPL unless I had a problem with the medical
which I don't envisage. From everything I've read it seems a fairly
pointless exercise, mainly designed to give the CAA some independence from
Europe and justification for it's existance.
The NPPL was, IIRC, pushed by the flight training business, in what I
believe was a cynical move to obtain a "PPL" which looks cheaper on
their price list.
In the end, most NPPL applicants are existing/previous PPL holders who
cannot now pass the CAA Class 2 medical. I think that's fair enough
though; the Class 2 is too strict IMHO. The State has no right to tell
you how to manage risk to yourself, it is not reasonable for
passengers to expect an airliner standard of safety, and ground
damage/injuries are extremely rare.
Post by GregNo but it might not go up as fast 8-), apparently the number of hours being
flown is falling rapidly so it seems inevitable that clubs will have to
increase their charges as their aircraft are less utilised, a vicious
circle.
Anyway, sorry to be so pessimistic but I've seen one of my big ambitions in
life go out of the window for the foreseeable future, and I'm not getting
any younger!.
I don't think one can blame the CAA or even JAA for the decline in new
PPLs.
I think the decline is due to the widening gap between the
expectations of "modern people", and the product/service which most of
the flight training business thinks it is OK to deliver. At home, you
have a nice car (perhaps with a GPS), a nice fridge, a nice microwave,
etc etc. Then you walk into a flying school and what do you get
(usually)? A crap airplane which rattles and stinks, an instructor who
is just passing through on his way to an ATP job, and you have to
learn to navigate with a compass and a stopwatch and that stupid
circular slide rule which Isaac Newton would have been immediately
familiar with. Most "modern people" just politely smile and walk back
out again. Most of what is left are the poor buggers who are really
keen to fly but are too skint to do much flying anyway.
The whole GA scene is living back in the glorious days of Hillman
Hunters, Morris 1100s, Norton/Triumph motorbikes, when the slow lane
of the M1 was packed with beaten up old wrecks held together with
Plastic Padding. But times have moved on.
The CAA, with its ageing ex RAF navigators etc, doesn't help. When it
comes to GA, they live in the past and will continue to do so.
If you get yourself a PPL, then buy something half reasonable which
you can operate and maintain to your own standard, you will never look
back. That's what I did and I have never regretted it for a moment.
And I haven't had the slightest reason to use the slide rule since,
either :)
In GA, there is always a potential cloud on the horizon. The only
things in life that are assured are Big Brother, sex, cereal,
football. Everything else will eventually be eliminated as British
society drifts towards the lowest common denominator. But it's worth
it because when you get airborne, you can forget all the crap :)