Hi guys,

We are in discussions with the civil aviation authorities here in
Colombia to allow a certain numbers of hours in gliders to count
towards the requirements for a power license. We have the support of
one of the responsibles at Avianca, Colombia's national flag carrier
airline; they share the conviction that glider pilots make better
commercial pilots. Many of our pilot school's graduates have become
commercial pilots with Avianca.

We are trying to incorporate a certain amount of glider hours into our
club school's commercial pilot curriculum using the glider
infrastructure we have in the club. The interest is high also on the
student side since it would be cheaper for them and winch launches are
a bit more exiting than your run of the mill take off in a Cessna 150
at 8600 ft (or should I say creep off...).

As expected the intial answer was no and as expected we found out the
reason for that was just because they don't know a thing about
gliding. Being persistent and talking to the right people got us to
the point that they are interested in working with us but they would
like to know how it is handled in other countries, to be able to use
that as a reference.

So here now my question for rec.aviation.soaring: How many hours in
gliders can you apply towards the requirements for a power/commercial
pilot license in your country and where could I find the regulation
that states it? I'd be especially interested in the US, UK, Germany,
Australia but any other reference would help, especially from other
countries in the Americas.

Thanks in advance,

Markus Graeber
Aeroclub de Colombia
Bogota, Colombia