"jeplane" wrote in message
...
Hello Teresa.

I got my instrument rating to be used professionally, and I can assure
you that it has nothing to do with soaring or glider flying. I wish I
could tell you differently, but that's just the plain truth!...:-)

With that being said, there is no doubt that flying in IMC WILL make
you a better pilot overall, and at a minimum, a safer pilot when you
will be flying in powered planes.

As for soaring, perhaps will you have a better understanding of STAR's
and SID's, and learn to avoid theses areas in a glider.

Absolutely do it if you want to increase your flying knowledge, ( it's
one of the hardest rating to get in my opinion, but very rewarding)
but it won't do much with your soaring X-country goals.

Richard
Phoenix, AZ
Citation Excel rated, but still prefer flying gliders by far!

I'd mostly agree with Richard. If all you want is to improve your glider
flying, it's probably not worth the time and money. However...

Instrument training is hard because it demands dicipline. You have to think
and fly. It probably increases your multi-tasking ability or juggling
multiple activities and lines of thought at the same time which helps any
kind of flying.

There have been many threads here about becoming overwhelmed by too much
information coming from "gadgets" in the cockpit - even as simple as flying
a landing approach while monitoring the airspeed. Instrument training will
help with this since you will have to learn to deal with far more cockpit
"gadgetry" than is in any glider while flying the airplane far more
precisely than you have ever thought possible.

Finally, an instrument rating is the dividing line between amateur and
professional pilots. Not everyone can get this rating - it takes real
talent in addition to hard work. If you want to test yourself, go for it.

Bill Daniels