On Saturday, June 2, 2012 2:11:53 PM UTC-7, Chris wrote:
son_of_flubber wrote:

But my question is this, can an "old person" learn to fly and does the
soaring community have the patience to teach them? Are there special
challenges to developing an older student and how well are those
challenges addressed?

Sure they can. Of course young people learn faster but in the end it matters
to keep the enthusiasm. My newest student (15 years old) soloed with 32
winch launches, where we expect a rate of 40 to 50 as an average. My
personal experience is that the number of launches to solo goes up with the
age, so a 50 year old guy can expect 80..100 launches.

Special challenges... not really. More patience is needed when the student
needs more time. We try to address all students by their personal progress,
independant of age.

This is my experience as instructor in a small german glider club
Chris

Most anybody can learn to 'fly' a glider, the question of serious cross country for those who solo'd after, say 65'ish would be cause for concern in my mind. I know a fellow who took up the sport, late in life, and ended up having a serious accident that didn't have to happen. He tried to land on the side of a mountain, when he had plenty of clearance to just fly away from the higher ground and maybe find something or at least find a better spot to put it down. I believe those who fly after 65, need a good experience pool to draw from, say 10 years of cross-country before reaching 65. I'm pushing 78, but most of my decisions come easy because I went into my senior years with a wealth of flying to compare situations with.
The recent fatality reminded me of doing the same thing and remembering how foolish it was. The day was just about to pop, but it hadn't quite happened yet, I tried to truck-stop, the hangar and then thought the runway might pop off a thermal. I ended up at 500 feet over the middle of the runway, going in the wrong direction! I said (out loud) OK JJ, knock this stupid crap off, had to do aa abbreviated tear-drop pattern to get where I needed to be to land. Put another one in my memory bank to not repeat!
Cheers,
JJ