I've seen social, and less social approches to both types
of instruction (power and gliders). Both work, but the
less social student pilots have a somewhat less rich
experience. And they tend to need more instruction.
I don't think this is BAD, just different. Some people want
to fly, but aren't into the BBQ so much. Hey, if that's what
they're most comfortable, I think that's ok too...
In article ,
Oscar wrote:
Maybe my choice of words "help with the chores" was a bit unfortunate. Guess
I have to get my head around the idea that glider training is quite
different to power instruction, where you turn up 30min before the lesson
starts, do 1 hour of flying, have a bit of a chat, then go home again.
Gliding is conducted in a club atmosphere where full time commitment is
appreciated and indeed expected. Not that I say that this is a bad thing,
just different to what I did in my PPL training.
Also agree with you that I owe it to myself to give it is try, otherwise
I'll be wondering forever if I missed something really special..... If you
guys can do it in England it must be 10 times as good in sunny and hot
Australia :-)
Cheers, Oscar
"Bill Gribble" wrote in
message .. .
Again, can't talk of how things are on your side of the world, but over
here similar applies - the club works on a basis of mutual, voluntary
support. But personally, I don't think of it as "help with the chores"
...
The flying is, of course, what it's all about. But it stands to reason
that if a half-dozen people are needed to put me in the air and drag my
plan back to the launch point when I come down, it's only fair that I
reciprocate and hang around to do the same for them when it's their turn
to fly.
The general rule I work to personally is that if I want to fly on a
given day I either turn up early enough to help get the kit out and set
up, fly and then play ground-crew for the rest of the morning and go
home for lunch, or I turn up at lunch time, fly, then play ground-crew
for the rest of the afternoon and stick around to help pack up and put
the kit away at the end of the day. Seems to work fine like this, and
means that my flying takes up, on average, about half a day a week.
Really not a bad deal.
Of course, on the odd occasion I think the wife won't notice my absence
(or I just feel like pushing my luck!) I hang around the whole day, get
the kit out and put it away, but fly both morning AND afternoon 
Besides, there are worse things to do on a weekend morning than spend it
with a group of friends playing with gliders. And maybe I was just lucky
and landed on my feet (no pun intended), but I never found any hoops I
had to jump through when I first started (though I missed Seagull's
actual post, so I'm only guessing at the content and meaning). I've
seldom met a more welcoming and accepting group of strangers as when I
first joined my local club. The only entrance criteria appeared to be an
obsession with the weather and gliders and the desire to talk about
little else!
Seriously, if your curiosity has led you as far as to enquire then you
owe it to yourself to give it a go. And though "the club expects members
to be there most of the day" that likely translates to no more than a
half-day in practice, as long as you're not adverse to getting up early
The alternative is, I guess, to spend a lot more money and find a
commercial operation where you can book an instructor, turn up for your
slot, fly and go home. But in my (very biased!) opinion, that's missing
half the fun.
In any case, best of luck, Oscar.
-Bill
Oscar writes
Plus the club expects members to be there most of the day and help with
the chores to get maybe one or two 30min flights. -- Have to think
about all this .....
--
Bill Gribble
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Mark J. Boyd