instrument rating worth pursuing?

Hi everyone:

I searched the archives for a discussion of this topic, but found
nothing recent, so here it goes.

I got my power license two years ago. Shortly after I saw the light
and was converted to gliders. I just passed my glider checkride a
week ago. Alas, now I am back in school in Eastern Washington state
where there are few gliders in the air and many inches of snow on the
ground. The nearest things with wings are Cessnas at the local FBO.
So I am thinking of doing more power flying and perhaps an instrument
rating. (There are no aerobatics or tailwheel instructors nearby.)

Here's my question to you all: to what extent can further training in
power flying, in particular the instrument rating, be of use in glider
flying? My personal goal is to pursue cross-country soaring. Would an
instrument rating broaden my horizons and sharpen my flying, or is it
better to conserve time, energy, and resources for gliders.

To those of you who have instrument ratings - how has the instrument
rating helped with your glider flying? Also, how has power flying
helped with your glider flying?

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

Happy new year!
-Teresa

Hello Teresa.

I got my instrument rating to be used professionally, and I can assure
you that it has nothing to do with soaring or glider flying. I wish I
could tell you differently, but that's just the plain truth!...:-)

With that being said, there is no doubt that flying in IMC WILL make
you a better pilot overall, and at a minimum, a safer pilot when you
will be flying in powered planes.

As for soaring, perhaps will you have a better understanding of STAR's
and SID's, and learn to avoid theses areas in a glider.

Absolutely do it if you want to increase your flying knowledge, ( it's
one of the hardest rating to get in my opinion, but very rewarding)
but it won't do much with your soaring X-country goals.

Richard
Phoenix, AZ
Citation Excel rated, but still prefer flying gliders by far!

On Dec 29, 3:20*am, " wrote:
Hi everyone:

I searched the archives for a discussion of this topic, but found
nothing recent, so here it goes.

I got my power license two years ago. *Shortly after I saw the light
and was converted to gliders. *I just passed my glider checkride a
week ago. Alas, now I am back in school in Eastern Washington state
where there are few gliders in the air and many inches of snow on the
ground. *The nearest things with wings are Cessnas at the local FBO.
So I am thinking of doing more power flying and perhaps an instrument
rating. *(There are no aerobatics or tailwheel instructors nearby.)

Here's my question to you all: to what extent can further training in
power flying, in particular the instrument rating, be of use in glider
flying? My personal goal is to pursue cross-country soaring. Would an
instrument rating broaden my horizons and sharpen my flying, or is it
better to conserve time, energy, and resources for gliders.

To those of you who have instrument ratings - how has the instrument
rating helped with your glider flying? * Also, how has power flying
helped with your glider flying?

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

Happy new year!
-Teresa


Teresa,

I just added my single engine after 20 years in gliders and it was one
of the best things I could have done for my glider students, many who
are already power pilots. I'm persuing the instrument rating as well
and have noted many similarities between instrument flying and cross-
country soaring mostly in how one uses one's mind. That is a subject
in itself that I wont go into here. There are some very exciting
cross-country soaring possibilities that only instrument rated pilots
can consider. Most glider people think this is dangerous and insane
and I hesitate to even mention it here. If you are interested search
this group for posts on it or email me.

All that aside, probably the best thing you can do to progress as a
soaring pilot is to own your own glider. It doesn't have to be a
$20000 or more high performance machine. Just ask the Cherokee kid on
this forum. You can probably find something usable for the price of
an instrument rating if you look hard and network and are willing to
put a little TLC into it.

I would enjoy talking with you more about this. Any chance you can
make it to the convention? You will find a lot of great contacts,
info, and discussions there.

Matt Michael

"jeplane" wrote in message
...
Hello Teresa.

I got my instrument rating to be used professionally, and I can assure
you that it has nothing to do with soaring or glider flying. I wish I
could tell you differently, but that's just the plain truth!...:-)

With that being said, there is no doubt that flying in IMC WILL make
you a better pilot overall, and at a minimum, a safer pilot when you
will be flying in powered planes.

As for soaring, perhaps will you have a better understanding of STAR's
and SID's, and learn to avoid theses areas in a glider.

Absolutely do it if you want to increase your flying knowledge, ( it's
one of the hardest rating to get in my opinion, but very rewarding)
but it won't do much with your soaring X-country goals.

Richard
Phoenix, AZ
Citation Excel rated, but still prefer flying gliders by far!

I'd mostly agree with Richard. If all you want is to improve your glider
flying, it's probably not worth the time and money. However...

Instrument training is hard because it demands dicipline. You have to think
and fly. It probably increases your multi-tasking ability or juggling
multiple activities and lines of thought at the same time which helps any
kind of flying.

There have been many threads here about becoming overwhelmed by too much
information coming from "gadgets" in the cockpit - even as simple as flying
a landing approach while monitoring the airspeed. Instrument training will
help with this since you will have to learn to deal with far more cockpit
"gadgetry" than is in any glider while flying the airplane far more
precisely than you have ever thought possible.

Finally, an instrument rating is the dividing line between amateur and
professional pilots. Not everyone can get this rating - it takes real
talent in addition to hard work. If you want to test yourself, go for it.

Bill Daniels

wrote in message
...
Hi everyone:

I searched the archives for a discussion of this topic, but found
nothing recent, so here it goes.

I got my power license two years ago. Shortly after I saw the light
and was converted to gliders. I just passed my glider checkride a
week ago. Alas, now I am back in school in Eastern Washington state
where there are few gliders in the air and many inches of snow on the
ground. The nearest things with wings are Cessnas at the local FBO.
So I am thinking of doing more power flying and perhaps an instrument
rating. (There are no aerobatics or tailwheel instructors nearby.)

Here's my question to you all: to what extent can further training in
power flying, in particular the instrument rating, be of use in glider
flying? My personal goal is to pursue cross-country soaring. Would an
instrument rating broaden my horizons and sharpen my flying, or is it
better to conserve time, energy, and resources for gliders.

To those of you who have instrument ratings - how has the instrument
rating helped with your glider flying? Also, how has power flying
helped with your glider flying?

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

Happy new year!
-Teresa


If you want to go somewhere in an airplane, the Instrument Rating is very
worthwhile.
It is almost totally counterproductive for cross country soaring.

Why?

Instument flying is seeking the "steady state" by looking at the panel.
Cross country Soaring is dynamic, looking outside.


Hartley Falbaum

On Dec 29, 2:20*am, " wrote:

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.


I doubt the instrument rating will help your flying gliders unless you
intend to do cloud flying in gliders in which case, in USA, it is
essential. (see archives for that hot discussion).

I had several thousand hours VFR flying in gliders and airplanes
before I tackled the instrument rating. I already had a commercial
airplane rating and wanted to remove the restrictions. I found it the
most challenging rating to qualify for and now I do almost no actual
instrument flying. In Arizona the conditions are usually severe clear
or severe thunderstorms and not much in between. I certainly don't
regret getting the rating though and I keep legally current.

I can tell you that an instrument rating or at least knowledge of
instrument procedures and training may increase your safety when
flying gliders. It should warn you that in busy training areas there
are lots of small airplanes flying around with a student under the
hood and an instructor paying too much attention to the student and
not enough time looking outside. It should also make you aware of
arrival routes which are places you would want to avoid flying
anywhere near cloud base.

Whether you go for the rating should probably depend more on what your
power flying ambitions are.

Andy

wrote:

Here's my question to you all: to what extent can further training in
power flying, in particular the instrument rating, be of use in glider
flying? My personal goal is to pursue cross-country soaring. Would an
instrument rating broaden my horizons and sharpen my flying, or is it
better to conserve time, energy, and resources for gliders.

Based on all the pilots (very, very few) that have suggested to me the
instrument rating aided their glider flying, I'd say it has very little
value. What it can do is open up airspace for what I call "extreme"
soaring: cloud flying and high altitude (Class A airspace) wave flying.
You don't sound like you are likely to pursue those for a long time.

I suggest you figure out how much the instrument rating will cost, and
consider spending the money on cross-country experiences and instruction
a with really good pilots. Two that come to mind Karl Striedieck and
Gavin Wills. A 4 or 5 hour contest flight with Karl would be a real
eye-opener, and the cost is only $200, plus whatever it costs to show up
at a contest. Gavin Wills will be offering US based instruction at
Minden and Parowan in 2008. I'm sure others can offer more suggestions.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

wrote:
Hi everyone:

I searched the archives for a discussion of this topic, but found
nothing recent, so here it goes.

I got my power license two years ago. Shortly after I saw the light
and was converted to gliders. I just passed my glider checkride a
week ago. Alas, now I am back in school in Eastern Washington state
where there are few gliders in the air and many inches of snow on the
ground. The nearest things with wings are Cessnas at the local FBO.
So I am thinking of doing more power flying and perhaps an instrument
rating. (There are no aerobatics or tailwheel instructors nearby.)

Here's my question to you all: to what extent can further training in
power flying, in particular the instrument rating, be of use in glider
flying? My personal goal is to pursue cross-country soaring. Would an
instrument rating broaden my horizons and sharpen my flying, or is it
better to conserve time, energy, and resources for gliders.

To those of you who have instrument ratings - how has the instrument
rating helped with your glider flying? Also, how has power flying
helped with your glider flying?

Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

Happy new year!
-Teresa

Teresa,

Consider these scenarios:

1. During a wave flight, a thick widespread under-cast forms below.
2. While thermalling under a large, strong cu, you waited too long to
leave and are drawn into cloud.

If you have an Attitude Indicator on your panel (many serious wave
pilots do) AND have the skill to use it, you can likely recover from
these problems. It is the skill using the AI that most of us lack and
this is where your rating could payoff.

Taking measures to avoid these two problems is the best course of action
but an Instrument Rating combined with frequent practice might prove
useful someday. At the very least, it is a satisfying and fun rating to
get and use.

Paul
ZZ

Hi:

Thanks to all for your thoughtful and informative responses. Based on
your feedback, what I will do is take the IFR gound course offered
locally and fly more VFR cross-countries, with an emphasis on
navigation and field-spotting. I'll also spend any and all vacations
in sunnier climes at places that offer soaring, aerobatics, or both.

happy flying,
-Teresa

On Dec 30, 1:25*pm, " wrote:
Hi:

Thanks to all for your thoughtful and informative responses. *Based on
your feedback, what I will do is take the IFR gound course offered
locally and fly more VFR cross-countries, with an emphasis on
navigation and field-spotting. *I'll also spend any and all vacations
in sunnier climes at places that offer soaring, aerobatics, or both.

happy flying,
-Teresa

I really liked the suggestion that if you really want to improve your
soaring start looking at purchasing a sailplane. You will fly more
plus it will give you plenty to do in the off season. You would be
surprised how much you can do (legally) to pet and spruce up your own
glider. As already mentioned it doesn't have to be expensive. I flew
my 1st contest at Ephrata in my 1-26.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL