I started as a power pilot and am working on my glider rating. While
knowing how to fly is kind of like riding a bike, I was surprised at how
much rudder is needed when flying gliders vs. power. It took me a half a
dozen flights before I got the hang of keeping the string centered.

I suspect that its probably a lot easier to transition from gliders to power
than the other way around, primarily for that reason.

Mike Schumann

"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
wrote:

I do believe that a student should not mix instruction. Certainly
"intro" and basic flights are not a problem, but some of the basics of
landing power vs gliders are quite different, and can be quite
confusing to the student (law of primacy).

Um ... they are? In what way?

As far as I can tell the basics are exacly the same and the differences
are minor, such as maintaining constant speed vs maintaining constant
altitude (though you maintain constant speed in power while
climing/descending, just like a glider), use of throttle vs airbrakes
for glidepath control, and different items in the checklist. On the
other hand I don't have a power license and have only soloed the common
training types such as 152 and Tomahawk. (Though I have landed small
turbprops e.g. Caravan and Nomad dual)

Based only on my own experience learning to fly, I think it would have
been very beneficial at one point to head to the aero club and do half
an hour of circuits because I wa having trouble getting touchdowns
right. Looking at other people spending lots of money on the towplane
doing repeated circuits I suspect the same might be true of them too.
An up-and-down circuit uses about three minutes of time for both the
glider and the towplane, and it's about the same three minutes for a
Cessna too at our airfield. But a Cessna costs NZ$150 an hour, while
glider plus towplane is about $400 an hour.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------