I suggest the best way is to do power first and then
power.
The cheapest way is to do power first and then glider.


By the time you have covered all the requirements for
the power ticket you will have flown the required number
of hours any way;, without counting any of the glider
hours, so no savings will accrue. On the other hand
if you have the power license already, the requirements
for getting the glider license are much reduced. I
don't believe this is a good thing, necessarily; the
course can become too abbreviated and you won't be
taught as much about how to really be an efficient
glider pilot.

I think it is not a good idea to try both simultaneously;
one will affect the judgment of the other adversely
when you are in the learning stage.

At 18:43 31 October 2006, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Marc Ramsey wrote:
wrote:
Hi all, I decided to take the plunge (no pun intended)
and start
flying. I thought about going straight for a private
glider license.
But, I do have the option of going for the powered
pilot license first
- then the glider license second. Any thoughts? How
many here have
both? Did you get your powered pilot license first?

I suggest getting the glider license first for these
(not well
researched) reasons:

* getting a glider license first requires a more thorough
training in
gliders, gliding, and soaring

* getting the power license first runs the risk of
later getting the
'typical' add-on glider rating (doesn't have to be
that way, but it's
common, I think)

* some of your glider time and training can be applied
to your power
training, reducing the cost and time required to get
it without (my
experience) significanly affecting the quality of the
training


Glider license first, power license 20 years later,
flew power for a
couple of years, decided it was expensive and boring,
haven't flown
power since...

My experience was exactly the same as Marc's, about
25 years ago. Now
there are ways to combine the two with much less compromise
than before.
For example, the Stemme is the BIG$ way to have a
good airplane and a
good glider, the Carat can do the same for one person
with less$ and
less (but still good) performance in both modes, and
the Katana/Ximango
types may also be satisfactory if more airplane and
less glider suits
your needs.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change 'netto' to 'net' to email me directly

'Transponders in Sailplanes' on the Soaring Safety
Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

'A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation' at
www.motorglider.org