wrote:


Getting IFR trained without having to learn more than I want about
running an engine seems relatively hard.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

i guess it just depends on how bad you want to cloud fly, apparently
not bad enough.

Exactly. What is it - 40 hours of flight time to get the IFR ticket?
With aircraft and instructor costs, that could easily be $4000. Then the
time and cost to stay current, and I don't mean just to meet currency
requirements, but enough time to be competent. If all you are using the
IFR for is flying in clouds and not as part of your flying in airplanes
for work or travel, this seems a marginal value to me. And, of course,
there's the expense of fitting the required equipment to the glider,
which, with a transponder and horizon, could easily be another $4000.

The cost and time would be less daunting if the IFR ticket was also used
to fly in wave above 18,000. I've given some thought to that, and I
already have a transponder, but it's still quite a commitment to get the
IFR rating and practice enough to remain competent and safe.

The pilots I know that do IFR in gliders already had the IFR rating for
airplanes before they decided to use it in gliders. Has anyone gotten
the rating just to use in gliders?

Too bad we can't do it as simply as the Brits and some of the Europeans.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org