15 Hour Wonders

Bob
I sure agree on the ATP does not = soaring skills. There is dang near no crossover in knowledge from conmercial power flight (specially jet/complex) to soaring. In fact much of what is standard practice in that type of flying becomes down tight dangerous in gliders. What counts is stick n rudder skills, low level wx analysis, short field landing ability and other skills completely lacking in commercial aviation. Give me a guy with a couple hundred hours of back country low level flying over the ATP jet jockee with a thousand hours anytime.

NUTS!

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 5:57:45 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Bob
I sure agree on the ATP does not = soaring skills. There is dang near no crossover in knowledge from conmercial power flight (specially jet/complex) to soaring. In fact much of what is standard practice in that type of flying becomes down tight dangerous in gliders. What counts is stick n rudder skills, low level wx analysis, short field landing ability and other skills completely lacking in commercial aviation. Give me a guy with a couple hundred hours of back country low level flying over the ATP jet jockee with a thousand hours anytime.

uneekc, you are completely correct, recently I had a guy come to the field and ask if he could tow, I raised my eyebrows and said how much time do you have? His reply was 20 thousand hours, my next question was do you have tailwheel time, answer, NO!, I am an ATP.
You mentioned short field landings, I promise you that these 15 hour wonders have no idea as to how you make an off field landing. They have no idea as to how to teach it. What about thermal entry and departure. Can they teach reading clouds, understanding of energy conversion in flight. The list goes on and on. Bob

FAA doesn't care about soaring, and that's fine by me. If you want to fly gliders, don't kill the towpilot and spot your landings. If you want to teach flying gliders that's about the extent of it as well as far as they're concerned. In Germany you need to take months of ground school to fly gliders. Careful complaining that gummint hain't big enuf. Our rules have been in place since before 1975 and I think they're fine.
Hawaii accident pilot was not an instructor nor acting as such. Fake news.