Private wrote:

It is said by many that the route to good landings is practice, practice,
practice. The key is not to keep practicing your mistakes. Learning to
land in gliders is difficult because it is hard (and expensive) to do enough
of them.

I didn't find this to be true when I was an active CFIG; in fact, our
tow pilot (an airplane instructor) once remarked at how quickly glider
pilots learned to land compared to a student in airplanes. I think the
biggest difference, at least when I was teaching, was we had a 5 to 10
minute discussion after every landing as we pushed the glider back to
the launch point, and sometimes continued the discussion at the launch
point, even if the tow plane was back and ready to tow. This discussion
was very important, because the student had some time to think about the
previous landing, then learned to identify what when wrong and why, and
decide how to correct it.

Most students could do a decent landing in our Blanik after 15 flights,
starting with deciding when to break off the airwork and return to the
airport, entering the pattern, and finally, the actual "landing". I say
"landing" because I think the landing starts with the decision to land,
not the flare.

Contrast this with the "airplane" method, which often involves landing
after landing (touch and goes), with little discussion or time for
reflection. Eventually, the student is able to manage a landing, but
isn't really confident that he/she knows what is right.

Tows are expensive and we seldom make more than a small number of
landings in a training day. IMHE the best way to learn to land is with a
GOOD CFI, in a light tailwheel aircraft and at a small quiet airport. This
will allow you to make many landings in an hour and is much more cost and
time effective than purchasing tows.

I haven't tried this technique, so I can't compare it to the glider-only
method, but the $$ will depend greatly on details of charges for the
tows, glider, and CFIG.

Gliders require ground crews for
assistance and it is hard to get more than 4 landings /hr.

We did it with the student, the instructor (me), and the tow pilot,
using unassisted takeoffs. Easy in the Blanik on 75'-100' wide pavement.
The first 3 launches were usually with a wing runner, though.

An aircraft
needs no assistance and can easily make 12 or more landings in an hour, and
the cost per landing will be a small fraction of the cost of gliders + tows.

If the discussion and reflection take place between the landings, I
think this would be effective. I know Derek Piggot thinks a motorglider
is ideal for initial training for the reasons mentioned.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org