On Mar 2, 7:37*am, qflyer1 wrote:
On Mar 2, 7:01*am, Surfer! wrote:



In message , John Smith
writes

glider wrote:
I would think that an active instructor is not the same chap that
goes for long flights

A typical USA question. In nearly the whole rest of the world, being an
experienced cross country pilot is a prerequisite for becoming a glider
instructor.

Depends on what you call 'experienced'. *In the UK a Silver badge is
required, not Gold or Diamonds. *And, of course, some people with a
Silver badge have managed the 50k and never flown out of glide range
again whereas others might not have a Gold but still do regular XC
flying plus the odd field landing.

--
Surfer!

Competing CFI-G w/ 2/3 Diamond.

Cheers,
Tim

Instructing for 12 years now, cross country for the past 4 years or
so. Personally
what's made me a better instructor has been mentorship by our club's
lead
instructor, who has very extensive aviation experience of all kinds
(including being
a professional test pilot at one point). Our club's instructors range
from Bronze
badge level up to double diamond level (the altitude diamond is pretty
hard to
get in the east). The two guys who don't have any cross country
experience
are pretty valuable anyway because they teach great airmanship (one is
a
full time airplane CFI and the other is an unemployed airline
captain).

I'll go back to the large number of CFIGs in the US compared to the
number
of clubs/operations. Our lead instructor has pointed out that a
typical
club model is to drum up a CFIG, park him in the back of a 2-33 every
weekend, and burn him out after about a year or so. Lather, rinse,
repeat.
That large number of CFIGs are the people burned out at some point who
have vowed to stay away.

Our club has managed to build up to 6 instructors, so we can teach
every
Saturday and every other Sunday without anyone having to give up more
than a day a month (which we require of all our club members anyway).
The trick is to actually teach well as a team, so that students
progress
from session to session, rather than having to prove themselves over
again
every week to the next instructor. We also put as our training
endpoint
achieving the Bronze badge, rather than the licence, so that we
produce
pilots ready for and interested in flying cross country.

-- Matt