On Feb 24, 11:58*am, Greg Arnold wrote:
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?

Awhile ago a friend of mine bought himself a 40:1 motorglider. His
first glass ship, after years flying Blaniks, Twin Larks and other
club tin. He was a competent pilot and had a fair amount of time, I'm
guessing under 300 hours.

So, after getting checked out in his new motorglider, he flew it
"several" times at the local airport where our club operates. No
worries, he does fine, let's a few of us fly the ship......the first
thing I notice is this is NOT a Blanik, or a Lark, or anything else he
might have flown, this thing has a great sink rate, and a great glide,
and while easy to fly, did require all my attention when entering the
pattern and setting up for a landing.

One afternoon after flying together, and while having dinner at the
airport cafe, he say's to me "let's take our sailplanes to XX field
tomorrow and fly". I declined the invite, since it was a long drive
and didn't offer anything my local area didn't offer. But this field
is "trickier" than our home field, and I should have asked him if he
was comfortable enough in his new glider to go there, not "safer". It
never occurred to me to really dig in and question him.

The locals required him to take a couple check flights in the L-13, he
flies the TO/Tow, pattern then lands flawlessly. So now he's ready to
fly his glider. From what I understand he had a great flight, close to
4 hours and explores all the local ridges, etc. then..........when it
comes time to land, he sets up and flies a perfect Blanik pattern,
into this tight field, with no real emergency bail out
options..............panics, makes a few hesitant S turns, then stall
and spins into the middle of the field, killing himself.

What went wrong?

Brad