It ain't that hard

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.

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.

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.








--

------------+
Mark J. Boyd

LOL. Well said. It ain't rocket science. Well,
it can be, but it doesn't HAVE to be.

Like anything, there are those who make it difficult, and those
who make it easy. Myself, I like it easy...

In article ,
Gregg Ballou wrote:
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.





--

------------+
Mark J. Boyd

"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.

Thank you! When I woke up this morning and read through that thread, the
same thought went through my mind.

If Mitty is still with us, I am a CFIG who has introduced many pilots to
soaring, many of whom had far more experience in the air than myself. Some come
down with a big grin after that first flight, and some don't, but all of them
were able to pick up the basics quickly. Be ready for a challenge on your first
flight; following that damn towplane is harder than it looks! It is like
learning to ride a bicycle. You wobble until something halfway between your
brain and your stick hand clicks into place, and then you wonder why it was ever
an issue!

In short, be ready for a genuine challenge followed by a quick string of
very satisfying, (sometimes almost orgasmic) successes. What more could you ask
from life?

By the way; I was until recently exclusively a glider-guider. I finally
took the trouble to add an airplane rating. Many times this great "stick and
rudder" guy found himself humbled by that lowly Cezzna. Same deal; challenges
and successes.

Go for it!
Vaughn

Gregg,
Well said. Soaring isn't easy, but neither is power flying. In both
we are fighting gravity.
I am fairly new to soaring, coming from a power background. Most
sailplane pilots I meet are fantastic people, supportive and easy
going. Really great bunch of people to be around. My only observation
is that there are very few women in the sport, much less so than
general aviation, airline or even military flying. If we want to get
the soaring numbers up we need to appeal to the other 50% of the
population(possible thread creep here...)
However, I always have to chuckle when I hear the rare one say
that"soaring is much tougher than flying a power plane". When I
politely inquire what power background they have usually they respond
NONE! :-)
To be honest, I was prepared to be shunned when I got into this
sport because of the supposed power/glider gulf. If anything, most
pilots love flying of any sort. I got hooked and bought a glider myself
and am just kicking myself for not soaring sooner.
Big egos are everywhere, but thankfully rare. Thanks for the great
post.
Dean Chantiles

wrote in message
oups.com...
Gregg,
Well said. Soaring isn't easy, but neither is power flying. In both
we are fighting gravity.
I'm feeling kind of nit-picky. Would a glider go anywhere w/out gravity?
I've always thought of soaring as being about how to work with natural
forces, not how to beat them. YMMV.

Semantics I suppose! In soaring one is using various forms of lift to
avoid gravity returning your sailplane back to earth. The power pilot
uses fuel to achieve the same means. Bottom line-no lift, no fuel=final
glide sailplane or power plane. Or am I being too nit-picky.
My point is that it takes skill to fly anything safely, smoothly and
efficiently. Experience and professionalism makes it look easy.

Dean