On Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 5:10:50 AM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:55:49 -0800, John Foster wrote:

On Monday, November 26, 2018 at 10:24:09 AM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
XC flying and competition flying are probably two of the main reasons
why pilots don't vanish after learning to fly and getting bored with
local flying. That's one reason that UK clubs promote going for badges
to a newly soloed pilot: almost immediately converting them to a single
seat glider and starting to work toward getting their bronze and silver
badges with gold and diamonds a more distant goal.

I wish we had the support from our national organization in the US that
you guys in Britain have for your clubs.

I agree that the BGA is an active and helpful organisation[*], but the
push for new solos getting to at least Silver badge level is done at club
level.

[*] its main contribution here is probably to publish 'Laws and Rules for
glider pilots', an A5-sized booklet of just under 70 pages. Its well
written, logically organised and covers pretty much all the legalities of
flying gliders in the UK.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

I think it was 20 pages when I got my Bronze in 1978.

I believe an FAI Silver is still required to attend any instructor course in the UK though the instructor types have broadened a bit since I was last there.

Until the DC-10 Paris accident and the Tenerife collision, an FAI Silver Badge was worth a 50UKP discount on insurance per pilot. A four pilot syndicate could save 200UKP annually. The cost of those accidents was enough to pull the glider owners/operators into the big pool.

Frank Whiteley