Does How a (Sailplane) Pilot Thinks, Matter?

On Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 5:32:27 PM UTC-7, BobW wrote:
On 4/3/2016 7:07 AM, N97MT wrote:
I think that it is ironic that we as CFI's are tasked with turning the
"fear and anxiety" bit into what I would call "healthy respect" so that
real learning can take place. But in the process of beating the fear out of
(or shall I say, selling safety to?) the student we abstract out a real and
potentially life-saving emotion which may be the only thing keeping an
otherwise competent pilot from his own demise.

Maybe this aspect of flight training is where's Mr. Spock's mind-meld
abilities would prove really useful! (For kids too young to remember the
original TV program "Star Trek," presumably somewhere on YouTube can be found
links to the "Mr. Spock" mind meld reference above...)

Might not a worthy goal for instruction be transitioning from the "fear and
anxiety" stage to the "healthy respect" stage withOUT heading down the
emotionally-numbing abstraction road? How would Joe CFIG be able to gauge
success? Your abstraction point above had not before occurred to
(non-instructor) me even as a possibility. Definitely food for thought,
though. Thanks!

I raised this at a seminar once when someone was describing a pre-flight
student simulating a spin/crash on Condor. In a hall full of 150 people and
many CFI's in attendance I asked "but did the student realize that at this
point he is dead?" I only got silence and blank stares in response.

Oh, for group mind-meld capability! Wouldn't you've liked to have known with
certainty the thoughts inside the heads of your fellow seminarians at that moment?

Bob W.

Your original question was if low saves was a necessary XC skill. A "low save" is technically the same as a high save; the only difference is lowering your personal minimums. I have seen pilots die from attempting this, so I MUST ask the question: what is the perceived benefit from putting your life at risk?

In a contest it might mean placing a few positions higher, a meaningless benefit for all but a very few. Or it might mean saving you and your crew from a long and tiring retrieve, maybe even a overnight experience. Are you willing to trade 20-50 years of lifetime for this inconvenience? I would hope that most pilots - and their crew whom are usually their loved ones - would say, emphatically, NO!