15 Hour Wonders

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 4:18:58 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Bob,

My point is that time is not the Be All and End All, other skills which one brings to the table are important. Intelligence, desire, previous teaching experience and an in check ego can make the 15 hour pilot the perfect candidate. The disparity in flying ability from one person to another is ginormous, as a tow pilot you know this well as do I. Pull a guy who has flown in the military for 20 years and/or the airlines and then pull a low time private pilot. Yes there are some outstanding PPLs but in general the difference is palpable.

Someone like Paul with an ATP, 5 Type Ratings, Comm-ASEL, Comm-Rotorcraft, CFI-A and CFI-R, 2000 hours instructing and 21,000 hours of flying brings much to the table. You can't buy that, it comes with time and experience. Those of us without that level of experience would do well to pay attention when they speak. That is NOT to say that someone with 15 hours PIC in a glider and wet ink on a CFIG cant be a good instructor and someone has to be their first student. However as Tango Whiskey noted in Germany and Switzerland a new CFIG is supervised for a period of time by an experienced instructor, a requirement that might need to be adopted here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I was recruited to teach Nuclear Medicine to student technologists at a Community College. I met all but one of the minimum requirements and could have picked that up easily but I'm not the type. I've seen lots of teachers and instructors who were not the type. Like Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Walt Connelly
Former tow pilot
Now happy helicopter pilot.

Thanks Walt, this thread was not intended to make Paul an example. We, our club could give a rats ass. The thread was about the minimum requirements and how people perceived that requirement. Having an ATP, CFIH, and all the other acronyms are meaningless when it comes to gliders IMHO. Most of the ATP types have to learn what the rudders are all about.
There is a big difference between teaching glider flight and teaching soaring.

Bob
I sure agree on the ATP does not = soaring skills. There is dang near no crossover in knowledge from conmercial power flight (specially jet/complex) to soaring. In fact much of what is standard practice in that type of flying becomes down tight dangerous in gliders. What counts is stick n rudder skills, low level wx analysis, short field landing ability and other skills completely lacking in commercial aviation. Give me a guy with a couple hundred hours of back country low level flying over the ATP jet jockee with a thousand hours anytime.

NUTS!

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 5:57:45 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Bob
I sure agree on the ATP does not = soaring skills. There is dang near no crossover in knowledge from conmercial power flight (specially jet/complex) to soaring. In fact much of what is standard practice in that type of flying becomes down tight dangerous in gliders. What counts is stick n rudder skills, low level wx analysis, short field landing ability and other skills completely lacking in commercial aviation. Give me a guy with a couple hundred hours of back country low level flying over the ATP jet jockee with a thousand hours anytime.

uneekc, you are completely correct, recently I had a guy come to the field and ask if he could tow, I raised my eyebrows and said how much time do you have? His reply was 20 thousand hours, my next question was do you have tailwheel time, answer, NO!, I am an ATP.
You mentioned short field landings, I promise you that these 15 hour wonders have no idea as to how you make an off field landing. They have no idea as to how to teach it. What about thermal entry and departure. Can they teach reading clouds, understanding of energy conversion in flight. The list goes on and on. Bob

FAA doesn't care about soaring, and that's fine by me. If you want to fly gliders, don't kill the towpilot and spot your landings. If you want to teach flying gliders that's about the extent of it as well as far as they're concerned. In Germany you need to take months of ground school to fly gliders. Careful complaining that gummint hain't big enuf. Our rules have been in place since before 1975 and I think they're fine.
Hawaii accident pilot was not an instructor nor acting as such. Fake news.

On Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 7:23:10 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
It's 15 hrs PIC time.

still 15 hour PIC is just about nothing. I am 16 and just got my Private Pilot glider 3 days ago and I have about that and I would not trust myself to teach others how to do what we do. It is dangerous and needs a very competent pilot to teach students how to fly.

Congrats!

On 12/10/2019 7:25 PM, Colten Coughlin wrote:
On Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 7:23:10 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
It's 15 hrs PIC time.

still 15 hour PIC is just about nothing. I am 16 and just got my Private
Pilot glider 3 days ago and I have about that and I would not trust myself
to teach others how to do what we do. It is dangerous and needs a very
competent pilot to teach students how to fly.

Congratulations on your PPG!!!

Instructing's like much else in life: A man's got to know his limitations.
(That's a well-known line from a movie made before you were born; your Dad
likely knows which one!)

Bob W.

You have 15 total but only about 3 hrs PIC. You would first have to do about 150 more flights, turn 18, and pass the commercial test. Then train and pass the cfig test. By then you'd have a lot more experience and be minimally qualified to teach like I was in 2005. I'm looking forward to that day for you Colten

Well, there will always be a minimum threshold for everything. The FAA gets to make the decision and the industry must abide by it. Getting the FAA to make changes is like tying to herd cats. I learned what needed to be learned to pass the check ride without ever really "soaring." Soaring generally comes when one has a certificate and goes off in a two seater with an experienced "soaring" pilot.

Walt Connelly