Tony wrote:


I think you'd lose a lot of experienced and effective instructors.
Seeking advanced badges and advanced knowledge is certainly a good
trait in an instructor but not the be all and end all. Not all of us
live and work and play at a "Diamond Mine" location. Some instructors
seek advancement in other ways than badge flights. I've only got a
lousy Silver Badge but I certainly think I'm a decent CFIG, at least
my students and their DPE's seem to think so. As far as I know none
of the CFIG's I have taken training from have above a Silver Badge.
But I still feel that I received top notch instruction. I also feel
that I get plenty of respect from my fellow glider pilots even though
I don't have the coveted Diamonds.

If any of the racing pilots in the country came to me for a spring
checkout or a flight review I wouldn't be able to teach them a damn
thing about going fast or winning races, but that is not what a flight
review or spring checkout is about. We'd have a fun time reviewing
tow signals, tow failures, abnormal patterns, spot landings, sim off
field landings, and other things that are the real killers.

And I'm still young enough to think of an afternoon crammed in the
back of a 2-XX rotating through 3 or 4 students as a good time.
Hopefully I don't get too old for that for a long time.



Another issue is the type of glider being used. Does a glass pilot
learn anything useful by practicing abnormal patterns, spot landings,
simulated off field landings, etc. in a 2-XX? Don't you need an least
an ASK-21 or Grob 103 to make such instruction useful, and preferably a
Duo Discus or DG-1000? Or even better, have him use his own glider to
practice these things?