Open Discussion; Creating XC pilots

" What about getting promising students on XC flights before they drop out of soaring?"

Last month one of my solo students offered to back-seat while I did a short XC flight in the Blanik. All of the common comments:

"Wow, you fly faster than I did!" and "You really bank much more than I did.", airspeed management while thermaling, etc.

I have done that with many of the pre-private students and a couple of long-time private pilots. One can read all the presentations, and listen to the hanger talk, but getting them into a glider and just letting them watch can be a great experience.

MB (Mike Bamberg)

PS, personal note, I just got confirmation of my contest number for my H301, 4M, Love it!