How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

Not really. The actual EASA requirement is for a solo 50km flight or a dual 100km flight.

These do not have to be FAI silver badge qualifying flights. It is possible to fly a 50km quadrilateral without getting more than 15km from the airfield, ie local soaring on a half decent day. Also, the cross country flight is training, not a test; the student can be a passenger while the instructor goes for a jolly & points out a few landmarks, the flight still qualifies. The dual flight can be done in a TMG so it's all a bit of a joke.

The likelihood in my part of EASA-land is that we will continue to do 100km dual cross country flights as a test & if flown in a TMG to simulate typical gliding flight (ie not in straight lines at a constant altitude.) The legal minimum & what is sensible are not necessarily the same.

Ed


On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 9:02:06 PM UTC+1, Sean Fidler wrote:
That is FANTASTIC NEWS!

On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 3:48:50 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 9:20:55 AM UTC-6, Tango Whisky wrote:
Very good point.
Under the new EASA rules, students have to demonstrate xc-capabilities before earning their licence.
In Germany, that has been mandatory ever since. And in Germany or France, a candidate for FI had to prove a total XC experience of at least 500 km (and the total training time obtaining the FI level is one year, typically).

Bert
Ventus cM TW

Am Mittwoch, 19. August 2015 16:43:14 UTC+2 schrieb Sean Fidler:
One big glaring issue I see in regards to encouraging XC is that a short cross country flight is not a requirement for earning a glider private rating (or a commercial rating for that matter)?

If we let students earn their "glider rating" purely by flying within gliding range of the airport, we unsurprisingly get a large portion of "rated" glider pilots who become very comfortable not venturing outside of gliding range of the airport. This is really no surprise, is it?

"Train how you fight, fight how you train..."

If students (and their instructors), as part of their training, never have to truly think about, plan or execute XC skills are we not setting them up for XC failure? More importantly, our CFIGs can happily exists as CFIGs without any skill, experience or desire for cross country flight! You can get a CFIG rating and keep it today without ever having ventured outside of "gliding range" of the airport! In fact, many CFIGs openly discourage XC flight as irresponsible, etc. Land outs are bad...mmm-Kay! The same goes for most FAA glider "examiners(?)." This is incredible to me and probably a little frustrating to many of us.

Many (most?, but not all!) glider "instructors" simply never learn XC skills and therefore never really teach it (or meaningfully encourage it). They often don't have a great LOVE for cross country. They often don't understand it. Many see glider flight close to the airport as normal and how it "should" be. Many are not passionate about moving their students towards cross country. Obviously, these glider "instructors" are not the greatest "spark-plugs" for preparing new glider pilots to get into the more advanced levels of the sport of soaring (XC). In certain cases they are "allowed" to actively discourage developing cross country skills (that's dangerous, etc). They know who they are.

This broken dynamic is a major problem that we face with soaring today. It is at least part of the reason why we are seeing fewer new pilots joining us on cross country's.

If I was "king" ;-) I would fundamentally change this FAA glider instruction dynamic.

1) Students would have to plan for and complete a short 50km cross country as part of the flight training process. Instructors would have to truly teach this XC skill, and help the student practice it! This short XC would be a required element. The student would not have to do this solo. Waivers for instruction in difficult terrain (why get flight training here?) or poor weather (why get glider training in the winter?) would be allowed, but in general XC would be an important highlight of the glider flight training experience (vs something that is just glanced over). Just like the long cross country is a highlight of a private power rating, the XC element of the glider rating would be the most memorable (and inspirational) for the student! If I remember correctly the long cross country (power) is done both with an instructor and solo! Why is this short XC not at least a requirement with the instructor with gliders? It makes no sense to me. Even a 20 km cross country would be better than nothing.

2) CFIGs would need to compete a 100km cross country (with a student or solo) every 2 years to remain current. This would need to be verified like a silver badge is today with witnesses, etc. Period! No exceptions. You either love the sport of soaring (XC) and are competent at it OR you are not. We need CFIGs to be ambassadors for cross country soaring and truly love it. Don't tell me...SHOW ME! Prove it.

3) FAA examiners would also need to have a 100km cross country every 2 years. They need to be able to evaluate the students ability to understand cross country soaring in the oral examination. Without some minimum cross country experience themselves, this is a total pushover.

I'll retreat to my bunker for the fallout this post will create! ;-). But I have to say we need some changes in this area of the sport.

Sean

I expect the FAA will eventually change Part 61 to fall in line with EASA.

FWIW, the EASA experience requirements for the equivalent of a PP-G a


10 hours of dual instruction
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2 hours supervised solo flight time
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45 launches and landings
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1 cross country flight of at least 100km under the supervision of an instructor