"I've never met an ASEL pilot who couldn't safely fly a glider
in all the other (PTS) areas by the time he had learned to safely aerotow"

Except for "soaring techniques," I can't think of another area of the
PTS that isn't required in order to sign someone off for
aerotow.

5 ft rope break: MCA, stalls, and recovery, speed-to-fly,
normal and crosswind landings.

50 ft rope break (simulated): slip to a landing, off airport
landing.

200 ft rope break: steep turns with coordination, turns to a heading,
downwind landing, minimum sink speed.

So for me, by the time I sign anyone off for aerotow,
they're already safe to fly a glider in all the other (safety) areas.

Granted, not in all conditions, and not in all gliders are they safe,
but this is trivially true. I don't know any pilot who
is safe in all gliders in all conditions (although there are at
least two I can think of on this newsgroup who would argue
differently ;P).

Colin is talking about self-launch, a different launch technique,
but I'd be surprised if his instructor felt he could
safely self-launch before his coordination was good. Even in
self-launch, if the engine stops at XXX feet, isn't there a
turn back to the airport? Isn't this with a pretty good roll rate
and steep bank? Doesn't this require good coordination to ensure
safety? Wouldn't this be required before endorsing someone for
self-launch?

Does someone need to learn soaring techniques to safely fly a glider?
I didn't. Sure I learned steep turns, and we talked about
thermals, but I trained and was soloed (by a glider DPE) in calm air.
I never felt the least bit unsafe.

Are there any instructors who felt an ASEL transition pilot could
safely do all of the things for an aerotow endorsement but NOT safely
solo? This seems a little funny, since an ASEL transition pilot
with an aerotow endorsement can fly an experimental glider
solo under the current rules anyway (no cat/class required for PIC).
--

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Mark J. Boyd