No one is complaining about BFRs in this thread that I've seen. They're complaining about the alternative which adds little value to the overall picture.
I've watched. Around here the vast majority of available Wings credits are loosely just a coffee and donuts presentation rehashed over and over to get pilots in the door of any particular flight club.
One continually runs "iPad in the cockpit" seminars ad nauseaum trying to get folks in to see their shiny newish Cirri, mostly held on leaseback by owners who when pressed, say they're losing big money on the deal, but want to keep their shiny toy.
Virtually none ever count for Wings "advanced" credits. Those few that do are usually real courses that require a week of free time to attend and cost a bundle.
The Wings pages will make one believe that there's some cool prize at the end of the rainbow for garnering all these "levels" like some sort of strange aviation-based video game where you stack up tick marks to grow your empire to get more points and win the game.
Whatever it costs to build that broken of a points system, probably isn't worth it, is what most folk are saying here. No one is saying a ride with a good CFI tailored to your experience level and flying type that attacks your weaknesses (or perhaps the instructor's pet peeves if they're a weaker instructor), isn't worth it every couple of years.
On a slightly different note: There is a tad bit of silliness in the BFR system. If you're flying non-professionally about say, 200 hours a year, IFR, using your machine to travel... A BFR is likely a cakewalk unless you have a 1% instructor who can and will challenge you. Okay maybe 1% is cruel, and it's not that bad, but you get the idea. It's the 25 hour a year around the pattern pilots who tend to not meet PTS standards at BFR time. For one, the BFR is cake. For the other the BFR is a gauntlet. And rightly so.
Insurers seem to know exactly what types of pilots cause them fiscal pain and exactly which types of aircraft they fly.
Wings doesn't seem to be built to address any of that hard data. It once was offered as an incentive to avoid the BFR, but was probably too easy.
Today's announcement, we've already seen at least one instructor here say flatly... this new twist to the broken Wings program, he literally will not participate in for it would remove him from the ground portion of the traditional BFR entirely and he's not comfortable signing his name to that.
I suppose there might be an instructor somewhere who knows a particular pilot well enough that they'll sign off without the ground review, but I doubt it when they see that some guy, even one they know well, only sat through an iPad seminar, a beginning thunderstorm seminar, and a couple hour talk on crosswinds. The quality and quantity of the available Wings seminars has to rise significantly to a point where a CFI would look at them and say, "Whoa. I've taken that seminar and it was incredibly difficult information. It challenged even me!" Additionally those ground courses should have tests at the end, not just a sign-up sheet at the front of the room indicating someone at least showed up and sat in the back, kibitzing with a buddy and ignoring the PowerPoint they've seen ten times before on runway incursions and what color taxiway signs are, to get credit.
That's my random thoughts on the thing. I'll probably continue to request Wings credits from ground and air training alike, but mainly only as a tool to show a willingness to better my flight knowledge if ever dragged into a Civil case where I screwed the pooch and hurt someone with my airplane. Knock on wood.
Far and away, the AOPA ASF online courses seem to be consistently higher quality than any in-person session locally offered.
The exception to that is the annual "fireside chat" with the local Tower controllers. That one is highly recommended by me to any local pilots. Tons of useful information about what's driving controllers batty when working with local pilots and a better understanding of their challenges up there in the tower.
Never seen a TRACON or Center equivalent offered locally, though. That'd be well worth the time spent.
Making Wings valuable would mean making it harder, not easier, to me. Tie it to things insurance companies are tired of paying out on, including the flight portions.
Stop expiring credits. The tenth basic thunderstorm course is the same as the first. Hold the credits and build a pilots "portfolio" of tested, measurable, improvements in aviation knowledge. Make me demonstrate how to use the iPad, don't just show the same slide deck that says you can buy Foreflight or WingX and screen shots showing the previous version's features.
Here's a novel one. Hold an E6B refresher with a test at the end! We all might whine and complain, but good pilots know that such a class would be beneficial. What instructor doing a sigh-off wpuldnt smile knowing you had recently reaquatinted yourself with your E6B and someone graded you on it?
Again, just brainstorming ideas and coagulating thoughts.
![\__[Ô]__/](/community/data/avatars/m/12/12009.jpg?1457665956){kind=avatar}
