As a Airplane and Glider CFI I would encourage most people to start out in a Glider, get the private and then move on to the airplane. The hardest student for me is a low time private airplane pilot who does not have many recent hours. I end up having to cover up all the instruments in the glider to get their eyes outside. In particular, students that have got their ticket on a glass airplane seem to spend all their time inside the cockpit. A number of "bad" airplane habits have to be broken. Numerous times now, the low time private airplane pilot takes longer to solo than the person that has never flown before. Plus, they usually have no formation experience. As far as glider pilots moving over to an airplane, they are ready to solo in a few flights, spend most of their time flying cross country and are ready to take the check ride at 40 hours. Some of the glider time counts towards the 40 hours but you really have to dig into Part 61 to figure it out and just so there isn't a conflict with the examiner most of my students get their 40th airplane hour on the flight up the the examiner.

A caveat is for the older first time pilot. My rule of thumb is that it takes about 20 glider flights to solo for someone 20 years old or younger, increasing one flight for every year older than 20 years. My 70 year old student took close to 70 flights to solo and my 45 year old student took around 45 flights. Teenagers are great to instruct, they make a mistake, you show them the correct way and they never forget. So an older first time pilot might be better starting in an airplane with the ability to do landings over and over on the same flight.

Now for someone doing a glider add-on with a lot of aircraft flight time, usually flying the tow light bulb comes on during the second tow and they are ready to solo on the third or fourth flight. Just need to get them using the rudder.

Just my 2 cents worth after instructing in airplanes for 25 years and gliders for 12 years.

- Barry Muhlenberg, CFIG Cloudniners, Morgantown (O03), PA