Micael

I just happen to be an Italian pilot who now flies out of Minden. The
only substantial difference that I can think of is that in Italy we do
not have a real equivalent of a PTS, the description of the practical
exams for the licence is not so detailed. I'm not sure if this is good
or bad, on one side pilots do not end up with "if I know to do A, B
and C in this exact way I'm good enough", on the other the practical
knowledge is pretty much depending from the person of your instructor.
Maybe some other italian fellow pilot can comment on this.

That said, I've got the occasion to fly in different places in Italy
and in France before coming here. Almost all places (every different
club/operation) are actually having some kind of "special" way to do
things. Here I've flown only out of Minden and Truckee, and while I do
have seen interesting and distinctive points (that famous "waggling
the tail" to start...) they are not much more than everything a good
pilot have to check out anycase while flying on a new airport.

....I'm just wondering, how happened that guy has US power and CFI, and
then Italian gliders?...

Of course, if you have any specific question I might help you out you
can contact me directly.

Regards


(Michael) wrote in message . com...
Can anyone who is familiar with soaring instruction in the US and
Italy comment on the differences? I ask because I have started
training a 'student' - actually an Italian licensed glider pilot - who
wants to add US glider ratings to his US commercial and CFI
certificates. His flying is generally very good, but I have already
noticed that there are things he is not familiar with that any US
glider pilot with a hundred flights would certainly know.

So far, I've noticed that there are certain wing runner signals he is
not familiar with - I assume this is because Italian procedures differ
from those in the US. He also has obviously had no instruction in
formal glider XC planning (as opposed to actually flying XC - this he
has done) and has never heard of the PTS accuracy landing as we do it
in the US.

I would appreciate as much information on the differences between the
US and Italian systems of instruction as possible, mainly so that I
can identify the likely problem areas and make sure we cover them in
depth. I've tried to find the Italian equivalent of a glider PTS, and
have had no luck at all.

Michael