What percentage have a power pilot license?

wrote:
Hi all, I decided to take the plunge (no pun intended) and start
flying. I thought about going straight for a private glider license.
But, I do have the option of going for the powered pilot license first
- then the glider license second. Any thoughts? How many here have
both? Did you get your powered pilot license first?


I have both: I started with power at the age of twenty-two, courtesy of
the USAF, but only got around to flying sailplanes when I retired at age
sixty from a major airline.

My personal recommendation is to start with the glider, even though I
did not do it that way. However, no single progression track will suit
everyone. The proper direction for you may become more clear if you
examine the different kinds of flying, and how they relate to soaring.
Talk to pilots with different backgrounds and perspectives, as you are
doing here to some extent.

As a former part-owner of a Decathlon and a Cessna 182, I can understand
why the average light plane pilot might become bored with the $100
hamburger routine after a few years -- beside the fact that it gets
expensive. Here, the situations that teach you the most lasting lessons
about flying are ones you are wisely advised to avoid, or else you
rarely get to fly with someone who can mentor you constructively over a
long period of time, and your progress stagnates. Flying under these
conditions can easily become repetitive and uninteresting.

Flying a 757 brings all the benes (at least it used to) plus the
hamburgers are served in much better surroundings, and you can get out
of Detroit in January on somebody else's dime. You'd be nuts to turn it
down, but it's not where you start.

Less surprisingly than might be assumed, the type of flying which has
seemed to me most closely related to flying modern sailplanes is flying
fighter aircraft (bear with me for a moment). Probably because in each
type one is almost continuously concerned with gaining maximum
performance from the aircraft in all phases of flight -- because of the
mission, and because that's just the way fighter pilots are wired. The
craft is designed and constructed for a demanding purpose with as few
compromises as possible, and it fits you pretty closely. The visibility
is excellent in both, and you have a purpose for being there beyond just
taking off from point "A", navigating to point "B", and landing without
breaking anything, even when you aren't actually fighting, or sailplane
racing. Energy conservation, application, and mental focus are essential
to survival/success. Unless one starts by flying light planes in Alaska
or in some other hostile environment where putting the airplane to work
-- using it as a tool, more than a toy -- is the name of the game, one
is unlikely to find the same kind of absorption in aviation -- at least
for very long.

When the seed is first planted in gliders (as it was with so many of
Germany's WW2-era LuftWaffe pilots, and is true today of some USAF
Academy Cadets) you can be born into the very heart and soul of flight,
grow without distractions in understanding and respect for flight itself
and for others who share the passion and the knowledge. It's the
shortest way home, if the sky is that place for you.

If you later decide you want to add fuel to the fire, you can do that --
and you'll have one hell of a head start. After that, become a tow pilot
and an instructor, and help nourish a new generation.


Jack