"Ian" wrote in message
ps.com...
On 21 Jun, 14:30, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:

There's no downside to training in higher performance unless the
instructor
THINKS there is. If the instructor is afraid of high performance
gliders,
he will pass that fear on to his students.

A high performance glider will always be slippery, which means it will
accelerate fast, which means that elevator/attitude/speed control will
be harder to learn. Won't it?

Ian



No. The student just learns what is presented. They are largely unaware of
these 'percieved' difficulties - unless the instructor makes a big deal of
how difficult a particular glider is to fly. The hand/eye coordination just
isn't that difficult to learn. It's the INSTRUCTOR who makes a glider hard
to fly.

Slick gliders are 'hard' to fly only if one has a preconception they are.
The Duo Discus, for instance, is a real pussycat. Even non pilots have no
problem with "elevator/attitude/speed control" if you just tell them to
keep the nose on the horizon.

In fact I'm tempted to say that there are no difficult gliders - at least
none made in the last 30 years. I've never flown a glass glider that
presented the slightest problem. Now a Bell 47 helicopter, THAT is hard to
fly.

Bill Daniels