Flight training, if you had to do it over...

I think you are asking something that has so many variables that it
cannot be answered as simply as you would like. No two students, and no
two instructors are alike. My first instructor told me I would never
learn to fly, and to stop wasting my time and his. My next instructor
recognized my problem in 1 flight and soloed me 2 flights later. There
is just too much human nature involved with egos, mental practice,
actual desire to learn, etc. When I learned to fly, even an instructor
with a negative attitude and a huge ego problem couldn't stop me. I
wish I could have had a different guy to start with, but it was not to
be. The bond of trust between instructor and student is much more
important than the frequency of flights. The encouragement it fosters
is paramount to learning. I flew about once every 2 weeks, because
that's what I could afford at the time.

wrote in message
ups.com...
There is one student and one instructor.
The student took gliding theory course, than he prepaid whole practical
course which includes min. 30 dual flights on tow to 500m, than he has
to make 10 solo flighst on tow to complete training required to get 3
seagulls badge of glider pilot.

The conditions are perfect, 18 years old student has summer vacation,
student and instructor have unlimited time for each other,
Both live 5 minutes from airport , open every day, weather is good,
they have choice how often to fly.

Million-dollar question is: at what frequency student should fly for
BEST RESULTS and MOST PLEASURE.
(Since we do it only once in our life, should we make it last and do it
in 2 months, not in 10 days?)

They can do required 30+10 flights in 10 days, or they can do the same
thing in 3 months doing about 15 flights per month, that is one flight
every other day.

I am asking what is best for the student, what is the best frequency of
flying lessons.
Is it one flight every other day? One flight every day? two flights
every day? two flights every other day? four flights every day ??
Etc... What is best?

Another question. If there is a plateau in learning, how many days
break from flying do you recommend, or how to deal with that problem?

Andre

Your answer causes me to ask two more questions.

What type of aircraft (glider) will be used for training?

What type of soaring is done at this site and what are the probabilities of
long duration flights from a 1500 ft tow?

The calm of the morning or evening is often considered the best time for a
new pilot to train as both the tow and the landing will be much easier
without turbulence. However a 1500 ft sleigh ride at this time of day is
going to result in very short flights and will not provide much opportunity
for demonstration or practice of stick and rudder flying skills.

If this is a ridge soaring site then it is much easier to reliably expect
longer duration flights and I would suggest that the desirable training
frequency will depend most on timing the weather and the seasonal winds. I
think all here will agree that a student can learn more in a long soaring
flight than in a short sleigh ride.

Thermal flying usually takes place in the hotter part of the day and the
associated turbulence makes both towing and landing much harder and unless
this is a very exceptional site I would be surprised if long thermal
training flights are desirable or possible for a new student.

In any event this training schedule will only involve a total of 30+10 take
offs and landings, (at least some of which will be made by the instructor),
and could total as little as 5 hours of dual air time, and between 1-2 hrs
solo.

IMHO, the major problem with glider training is that the tows are relatively
expensive and this causes both flight time and each landing to be quite
costly. I found landing to be by far the hardest flying skill to master,
due in part to the fact that I was only making 1 or 2 per flying day. IMHO
it is easier and more cost effective to do early training and particularly
landing practice in a light power aircraft as they have the ability to
perform stop and go landings and at a small uncontrolled airport can provide
as many as 15 circuits in an hour. Most skills are most easily learned by
repetition and making several landings in a row allows the development of
the ability to recognize the proper landing attitude and sight picture. The
upper airwork is also better as the flight exercises and practice can be
extended to allow more practice of exercises usually accompanied by large
loss of altitude like stalls and slips and particularly spins. I suggest
that this early training is best done in a light taildragger with a stick
like a Cub or a Citabria as their flying and landing characteristics are
very similar to gliders.

I am not suggesting that all primary training should be done in a power
plane, only that there are great cost savings that can be realized by
beginning with a few hours of power practice before transitioning to
gliders. I am sure there are many other opinions here and hopefully they
will come forward. I would also suggest that you talk with the glider
instructor as it will be best to be working with his cooperation and
guidance.

Good luck, YMMV

I
think all here will agree that a student can learn more in a long soaring
flight than in a short sleigh ride.

Sort of. I think that a primary student learns more in four 15 minute
lessons than in one 1 hour lesson. I find that the airwork comes fairly
quickly, take off and tow less quickly, pattern and landing takes longer
still. My club does mostly 3K tows and when a student is close to solo,
we still tend to do a bunch of pattern tows - that HAS to be right.

Tony V.