Paul T

My replies are embedded in your message below.



Yeah at great expense to myself, sorry but I cannot afford to make
transantlantic telephone calls

I had no idea you were international. I assumed you were within the U.S. and simply offered the usual ways of communicating. Now that I know you are international, and assuming you are still interested in my opinions on the subject, I would suggest you download and install Skype. It costs nothing to install and nothing to use. My Skype ID is "scooter.manley". You would need to send me a contact request that I would accept, allowing us to communicate via Skype.

- there was no accusatory tone - asked a
simple question that's all

Over my ten plus years of advocating for the use of flight simulation to improve glider flight training using computer-based software (Condor), the idea has been met with various levels of passive resistance. My experience has been that when someone asks for "evidence", they are more likely looking to refute my claims than looking for information. So forgive me for being gun-shy.

dont see why that can't be answered. Think
you are getting a bit oversensitiveness and reading things into things
that aren't there .

Guilty.

My reluctance to respond on a public forum is based on your experience asking a question on a public forum.

The guy stated this was his business

Pretty sure I didn't state that.

and made some
claims in a public forum -

While it might be "assumed" by my post that the flight training services I provide are my business, they are not. I do not solicit nor have I ever accepted offers of payment for the services I provide. The training resources I have developed and make available on my website (gliderCFI.com) are free for the taking. I do not even ask for attribution. I do what I do for the good of the sport. I ask only to be taken seriously.

I merely asked if he had any evidence for that

Nothing that could be considered irrefutable, only my perception of my experience with the 70 or so folks I have trained over the last 10-12 years. Many of those folks are happy to back up my claims with their testimony.

and what the average time saving was - surely a simple answer like' in
my experience for the 50 students that have used this method - the
average student can save 2 -4 hours on R/L training' would have
answered the question - cannot see why that is so hard to do?

The answer is not as simple as you would imagine, but I'll give it a shot.

Time savings:
In one sense, simulation-based trainees will spend considerably more time (often orders of magnitude more) performing and perfecting their flight skills than do aircaft-based trainees. For example, it is possible in simulation to perform 20-30 crosswind landings in the span of one hour. Compare that to the time needed to acquire that same level of experience in an actual aircraft. While the brains of aircraft-based trainees may have 10-30 hours of flight experience upon earning their rating, the brains of simulation-based trainees will have hundreds of hours of experience.

In simulation, there is no time spent waiting around for your chance to fly..

If the training is done at-a-distance (over the internet) there is no travel time to/from the airport.

Simulation-based training is not limited to the available days/hours of operation of a club or commercial operation. It can be done any time of the day, any day of the week, any month of the year, and with student and instructor anywhere in the world.

I could go on, but this post is already running long, and long posts are annoying.

Cost savings:
Computer-based flight training costs next to nothing and pales in comparison to the costs of conducting aircraft-based flight training. If you are looking to provide low-cost flight training, as you describe below, you can't beat simulation.

===

For more of my thoughts on the use of flight simulation to improve glider flight training (and so you don't even have to install Skype and talk to me), I would encourage you to read the 26 articles I wrote for Soaring Magazine over the span of 4.5 years. They are available on my website under the "Condor/Condor Corner" drop-down menu.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration.



If you wish to know the reason for this - is that I with some friends are
thinking of establishing a gliding club in Bulgaria - Bulgaria is one of
the
poorest countries in the EU - we would like to establish a club that the a

person on an average income can afford to fly - average incomes are low
in Bulgaria @ 400euro/month - so any money savings saved in training
would be beneficial and it may pay to use a simulator in the training
syllabus.