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Eric Greenwell wrote:
Janos Bauer wrote:


I have to agree with Bill and Michel. I prefer instructors (and even
club members) with xc experience (or intention to go xc) because
that's where you have to show your best.


"All other things being equal", so do I; however, I know good
cross-country pilots that are not good instructors (most of these don't
instruct, fortunately), and frankly, some them have poor flying skills.
But, boy, can they find the lift and use it!

My point was only about the advantage of xc experience. If we have two
good instructors and if one of them has xc experience that is more
valuable for me. That's all. I don't state that simple xc experience
will make you good instructor. Even an asshole could fly xc. The key is
to teach what you experience on xc. To transfer all those complicated
lessons in an understandable way requires to be really clever.

I believe xc is an ultimate soaring

exam.

The things that make you good at cross-country are not the things you
need to fly safely. Cross-country flying is mainly about figuring out
where the lift is, then using the best of it. It is not about keeping
the yaw string straight, holding your speed to +/- 1 knot while
thermalling, or making coordinated turns. Those things help, but if
that's all it took, I'd be a winning contest pilot instead of an also-ran.

Hmm, the best instructors who taught me always warned us to pay
attention on details (yaw string, speed, bank angle etc-etc). They were
also successful xc pilots, some of them finished on top several
contests. We fly on flatland only and that makes much difference.
I know that contest is a different issue. XC in club environment, when
only 2-4 pilot is on the task, is more valuable for me.

You can climb from 150-200m locally but can you repeat it 100km

away under stress of outlanding?


Teaching a student to handle stress and distraction is very important,
but it's a difficult job that can only be started with basic training.
Even more important is to teach the student to avoid situations that
cause more stress than he can handle. This is also difficult. My point
is a student can be taught enough of this stress management (by a non-XC
instructor) to qualify for a license and fly safely. It won't be all he
needs to know about it for every flight he might make in the future, but
we all do some "on-the-job" learning, don't we?

Around the airport there just much less impact on the pilot. You can
teach about stress better if you experience it. It's just so useful to
sit down with the "old" pilots and listen what they experienced an
his/her xc tasks. Of course several unexpected things could happen
around the airport but on the task there are much more chance to face
something new. And those cases you have to use your brain...

Can you afford to make any mistake (yawing for a while, choose wrong
path or speed) when try to make a l/d max final glide?


Yes, you can. Goodness knows, I've done it many times myself, and I'm
here to tell you about it. It means you aren't as likely to get home and
win the contest, but it's not a safety issue, because you keep a safe
landing area within easy reach. You do, don't you? You don't try that
max l/d final glide across a forest, I hope!

No, it's not about safety in this case. For example on my first 300km
I started my final glide in a Pirat at 2200m ~60km from the field. I
passed several outlanding places so it was safe but a really long glide
with max l/d speed, yaw string centered. The other pilot outlanded that
day...

You always learn something new and feel as a student again. Hanging
around the airport could be boring and doesn't attract new members. We
shouldn't be lazy to settle down and just telling the 10-20 year old
stories... We should go out again and again and collect new
experiences (and share it at the airport's pub of course. XC
experience valuable for the soaring community only if you share it.
I don't say that instructors without xc experience can't do basic
training. I just think basic training is not too much, training is
really done if the student made the first 300k... How do you support
your student if you haven't done what she/he is about to try?


The instructor doesn't have to do it all. If the club (or a commercial
operation) has cross-country pilots flying from the same airport, these
pilots can guide the student or newly licensed pilot into cross-country
flying. They can do this by example, by flying with the new pilot in one
of the two seaters, by pair flying, by holding ground schools, and so on.

That's why I wrote instructor and club members in my first post. I'm
open to get these lessons from anyone.
In a summary: it's just better if you experience as much as possible
in soaring. Instructors without xc are not bad at all, they could be
just better if they try it again. Unfortunately most of the clubs there
is a tendency to fly less and less xc.

/Janos