No apologies necessary from my perspective. I think it is interesting and helpful to understand the differences between how gliding operates in the different countries around the world. Both in case of travel which can be complicated, but also just to learn from others.

On Friday, June 14, 2019 at 2:07:19 AM UTC+10, Dan Marotta wrote:
My experience was in the mid-1980s and things may very well have changed.

My US license was never an issue as I obtained a temporary GFA
membership which allowed me to fly Australian gliders.Â* I was not
allowed to fly Australian registered airplanes on my US license and my
visit time did not allow getting an Australian license.

The "Daily Inspection" is what I was talking about and, to my knowledge,
there's no similar requirement in the US.Â* My experience has always been
that the Pilot in Command is responsible for the airworthy condition of
the aircraft.Â* Of course there are maintenance and inspection programs,
annual, 100-hour, etc for commercial or rental aircraft, but no daily
inspection requirement beyond the preflight inspection conducted by the
pilot.

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

On 6/12/2019 6:09 PM, Mark Morwood wrote:
On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 12:10:47 AM UTC+10, Dan Marotta wrote:
Aussies do things differently, Mike.

One one trip to The Alice (Bond Springs), when I went to preflight my
glider I was told that I was not authorized to do that.Â* Only the
"engineer" was allowed to do the morning inspection.Â* In the US, it's
the pilot's responsibility to insure that the aircraft is safe for flight.

The person that told you that was wrong for Australian glider pilots in Australia, at least since I have been gliding.The daily inspection can be done by anyone with a DI rating, which is most post-solo pilots. This inspection will be noted in the Maintenance Release kept in the glider and is valid for the day. The pre-flight inspection is done by the pilot. I'm not actually sure how the DI would work for "foreign" pilots, as the recognition of foreign qualifications seems to be challenging everywhere, but I assume the DI qualification would be assumed as part of your reciprocal licence as I suspect it is not a separate rating elsewhere in the world.


--
Dan, 5J