It ain't that hard

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to scare people away. If they actually
know how to fly well, the transition will be easy.

However, it's rare these days for any student working on a PP-SEL rating to
get much basic airmanship training. There's just too much other stuff in
the power syllabus these days.

That's why the glider rating is such a great add-on for many power pilots.
They'll leave with a far better skillset. They'll also have a lot of fun
getting the rating.

Just set expectations realistically so they won't be disappointed.

Bill Daniels

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:sB6Zd.71365$Tt.47295@fed1read05...
Hear Hear.. Agreed..
We go through phases.. people knocking on our door to get a glider
rating..
some we have to turn away because our weekend club operation and
instructor
work load is maxed out.. we have run a waiting list from time to time as
required.. about 1/2 of those are power pilots looking for something other
than droning along behind a motor tied to a GPS pointer and the auto
pilot.

BT

"Gregg Ballou" wrote in message
...
We bitch about declining numbers and then when a presumbly
competent
power pilot asks a transition question people add how
hard it is to fly
gliders. Give it a rest it is not that hard- Ok going
far and fast that takes
skill and time to learn but just flying gliders safely
is not hard nor is
staying up on a good day, and it is a glider certificate
after all and not a
measure of soaring skill so lets encourage this fellow
to go and get a
commercial add on (it is one less check ride and he
will be that much
closer to being some clubs CFI) then he can go learn
to soar on his own
time after he has the ticket in hand. I think peoples
egos get in the way
and we tell ourselves that we have some super skill
and you can't get
here without standing around a gliderport for five
years running wings
and listening to all of us superheroes.

Tailwheel, gliding, and acro seem to have similar stuff.
They are all pretty much VFR, and involve "finesse." Hamfisting
and using the wrong speeds doesn't work. And some ASEL
pilots get away with some pretty bad short-field and
crosswind deficiencies.

It is rarer to see airmanship at low hours. And some of it
is the "pile-on" training for PP-SEL. Radios and airspace and
night and low-vis and map reading and VORs and wake turbulence and
flight plan filing and flaps and patterns and blah blah blah.

None of which has anything to do with flying, just socialization.
Spend 90% of the training on this, and 10% on airmanship, and what
do you get.

The glider and UL community at least has avoided much of this
extraneous garbage. Thank goodness!

In article ,
Bill Daniels wrote:
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to scare people away. If they actually
know how to fly well, the transition will be easy.

However, it's rare these days for any student working on a PP-SEL rating to
get much basic airmanship training. There's just too much other stuff in
the power syllabus these days.

That's why the glider rating is such a great add-on for many power pilots.
They'll leave with a far better skillset. They'll also have a lot of fun
getting the rating.

Just set expectations realistically so they won't be disappointed.

Bill Daniels

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:sB6Zd.71365$Tt.47295@fed1read05...
Hear Hear.. Agreed..
We go through phases.. people knocking on our door to get a glider
rating..
some we have to turn away because our weekend club operation and
instructor
work load is maxed out.. we have run a waiting list from time to time as
required.. about 1/2 of those are power pilots looking for something other
than droning along behind a motor tied to a GPS pointer and the auto
pilot.

BT

"Gregg Ballou" wrote in message
...
We bitch about declining numbers and then when a presumbly
competent
power pilot asks a transition question people add how
hard it is to fly
gliders. Give it a rest it is not that hard- Ok going
far and fast that takes
skill and time to learn but just flying gliders safely
is not hard nor is
staying up on a good day, and it is a glider certificate
after all and not a
measure of soaring skill so lets encourage this fellow
to go and get a
commercial add on (it is one less check ride and he
will be that much
closer to being some clubs CFI) then he can go learn
to soar on his own
time after he has the ticket in hand. I think peoples
egos get in the way
and we tell ourselves that we have some super skill
and you can't get
here without standing around a gliderport for five
years running wings
and listening to all of us superheroes.








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Mark J. Boyd