The Decline of Soaring Awards

Just to jump in with SGS 1-26 comments..
There may be some reluctant to consider the 1-26 as a "cross-country machine" for being more difficult to achieve what they may consider "cross-country distance". Remember that the performance handicap on the 1-26 is 1.65 ..... therefore a 30 mile flight (even close-in triangle) in a 1-26 is a comparable accomplishment to a 50 mile flight in an older standard class glider. That's pretty respectable for a beginner!

So be be proud of those shorter 1-26 XC flights. I own/race a Genesis and a 1-26. Some of my most rewarding flights have been in the 1-26.

Always remember that one of the benefits of XC in the 1-26 is that your probably going to land out closer to home

Curt Lewis
ASEL-CFIG
Genesis 2
1-26B

Many posts here for me to reply to....not picking on this poster...
I had roughly 200hrs in 2-33 and 1-26 before "better ships".....

In a weekend, I was flown in a Cessna 150 to use flaps, then signed off and flew.... SGS-1-34, SGS-1-35, PIK-20....the Cessna 150 gave me a means to understand flaps....as well as changes in pitch attitude....

While not huge, had contest pilots as well as CFIG-G's as mentors......

I spent a number of years pushing glider students to basics as well as XC...
I remember a "familersion" (sp) flight with a DPE in a ASK-21(he owned) before I flew rides, etc. We were a long way from home, decent NE day, I pressed outward.....
Owner/DPE was questioning my flight.....
We had a longish day, got home, never an issue (to me).
We had fun, got signed off in the Ask-21....

Yes, I did A, B, C, Bronze, Silver, Gold, 2 Diamonds, from 1 airport....need diamond altitude.....most were done in "low performance" ships....

Yes, I picked on some of our club peeps that wanted "fast glass and electronics", I would drive to the ridge in a 1-26 and "hope" things worked out.....
Usually it did.
Look out the canopy, maybe check a map, what looks decent....

Our club has a "go long, go far...we can fetch" mentality....not all do that.
I appreciate my "upbringing" early on, I try to foster that....

Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive.

Even though I'm already an old guy, my endurance in the air has slowly increased over a decade of flying to about 3 hours. For a younger pilot, 5 hour duration flight might be more a matter of skillfully finding lift, and less a matter of raw endurance.

You could do like me and take off with a case of the flu (back in the
'80s), sit miserably in the cockpit for 5 1/2 hours, and land to find
that you'd not screwed the nut tightly enough on the barograph drum and
it did not rotate.

Or you could save that 5 hour duration flight for your first of many
Gold Distance/Diamond Goal attempts.Â* It'll likely take you 5 hours or
more in early attempts, anyway.Â* Good luck!

On 3/24/2020 3:29 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:
Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive.

Even though I'm already an old guy, my endurance in the air has slowly increased over a decade of flying to about 3 hours. For a younger pilot, 5 hour duration flight might be more a matter of skillfully finding lift, and less a matter of raw endurance.

--
Dan, 5J

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:29:35 -0700, son_of_flubber wrote:

Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour
duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and
flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to
a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive.

Its a useful marker: in a lower moderate performance glider, say Libelle
to Pegase, under UK or New England conditions, its going to take you 4-5
hours to cover crack 300km (Gold distance or Diamond Goal flight).

It was also useful in convincing me that I *could* stay up that long.
That, by itself, makes it a good personal goal regardless of the Silver
qualification.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

There is some merit to the "nest egg" comment. Follow me here. The sucessful clubs in the world (almost all European) have enjoyed decades of equity growth in both equipment and experience. These are true clubs that pool their resources and have a significantly greater experience to offer members and prospective members. Conversely in the USA we share almost nothing financially or in knowledge.
A new member must be willing to pay through the nose to train in a P.O.S. with an "instructor" who's never left the pattern. IF they earn their certificate they need to bootstrap a cross country program on their own or retake the same check ride twice and spend their days in the back of a 2-33 as an "instructor" themselves. The system doesn't work. Save your stories about how if you did it anyone can do it. The general public isn't buying it, so I'm not either.
On the bright side there is enough experience to tap into, the proper aircraft exist. What is needed is people giving back. I see the entitlement issue differently. Recently a friend claimed to "play in his own sand box" meaning he had his own glider and was insulated from the problems soaring faced.. That is the entitlement! "I got mine, **** everyone else!" Until we pool our resources and give back our FAILED sport will continue to circle the drain in the USA.

Le mardi 24 mars 2020 22:29:38 UTC+1, son_of_flubber a écritÂ*:
Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive.

Even though I'm already an old guy, my endurance in the air has slowly increased over a decade of flying to about 3 hours. For a younger pilot, 5 hour duration flight might be more a matter of skillfully finding lift, and less a matter of raw endurance.

It is a sad fact that some clubs ask that their members get the duration leg of the silver badge before allowing them to do the distance leg. Even in a low performance ship (I did it in a Ka8), the 50 km take 1 to 2 hours, so why would you have to do the 5 hours first? You'll do them without even noticing it if you try the 300 km distance leg for gold in a low performance ship (I did my first 300 km triangle in a Ka6E in 6 and 1/2 hours, still one of my favourite memories even if it was disallowed as a badge flight due to a faulty turn point picture).

I'd say one of the key points if you're going to try and go XC without formal two-place training, is to learn to know the region you're going to fly over. In the 80's, I did it by studying ordnance maps (no Google maps in these days) during the winter months. It helped me find my goal aerodrome. If you're using a gps for the 50 km, you'll lose half the fun...

By the way: you CAN put this in your smartphone: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...h-8083-13a.pdf

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 9:57:12 PM UTC-6, John Foster wrote:
I read the recent article in Soaring and it has got me fired up. I have been a member of a small club in Washington State for the last 2 years, learning to fly. The club has a 2-33 and a Lark and a Pawnee. That's it. Badge flying has not been an emphasis, even though one qualifies for at least the A badge once you solo. Part of the reason is that there is very little emphasis on cross-country flying, mostly because most of the club pilots don't like flying the Lark, and it is too big of an ordeal to disassemble the 2-33 and transport back to the airport should an off-field landing occur. As a result, most people just fly the 2-33 in circles around the airport, never venturing outside gliding distance. The club has been in the market for a decent glass two-seater to do cross-country flying with, but there is no budget for this. And the one CFIG is getting about ready to hang it up, and has not had much interest in teaching cross-country flying, at least in part due to the club not having appropriate aircraft for training students to do this. While the Lark is perfectly capable of flying cross-country, it is still not regarded by club members as a good glider to learn this in.

At the recent SSA convention, some of the club officers were discussing the dilemma with other folks from other small clubs, and again and again they encountered the same problem--aging out CFIGs and club gliders not up to the task of learning cross-country flying in.

Most of the loudest voices we hear here on RAS seem to be indifferent to the plight of smaller clubs. These people are typically close to large metropolitan areas with a very large (and wealthy) population base to draw from, and are members of large, well-established, and well-funded clubs. But the reality is that there are many small clubs that don't have a CFIG that will teach cross-country or they don't have a club trainer they can teach it in, and they don't have a membership base that can support/afford a $50-75K glass two-seater capable of cross-country training, let alone a motor glider that could be used to practice going through the motions of off-field selection and setting up an approach. Why? Because they can't afford it.

So, in order to save the sport, get more more young people flying, and make it more accessible to people other than retired old men who are sitting on a nest egg large enough afford a new JS3 or Arcus M, what can we do? How can we make it more affordable?

The other concern regarding the expense of new gliders, is that current fleet of used training gliders continues to slowly shrink. More and more training gliders are either being damaged by training accidents or by weather, and those that come up for sale often have damage history, and as a result, are heavier and have a reduced useful load. This, coupled with the obesity epidemic, is putting a premium on those training gliders capable of carrying two 200lbs + pilots. Eventually, we are going to run out of training gliders if this trend continues. We need to be thinking ahead about how we are going to replace this aging fleet, or we will be left high and dry.

John from my experience it has to do with the club atmosphere much more then the the fleet. I'm part of a small club out on the west coast. We have 2 2-33's, 1-26, and a DG-100. None of these are great cross country trainers, but the club is Very cross country oriented. In the spring when the weather is good there will b at least 5 or 6 people going xc in private ships and the students pick up on this.

Another thing to note is that you don't need to be a CFIG to teach cross country. One of the members of our club owns a Duo and he will often bring fleshly minted pilots on flights with him to see what you can really do with cross country and for mentoring. For me personally he has been the best resource for learning to fly cross country both on the ground and in the air..

Last note, and this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think that badges, at least after the bronze badge, are a silly and outdated way to encourage cross country flying. For a badge one must declare a task, fill out a lengthy task decoration, find an official observer, find a certified tracker, if not in calibration get that tracker calibrated, and so on before making the flight. These steps are for the most part pointless, annoying, and discouraging people from flying. Thus I think OLC is a much better motivator for cross country soaring if you need one.

Hello Wyll, as for some of the badges you don’t really have to do a thing. For gold and diamond distance all a guy has to do is have a logger, call an observer or the airport manager, tell them your going on a long flight and fly it. If you make the distance, then you fill out the forms and have the OO or manager check over things. Actually easy peasy.
The same goes for altitude legs. For declared distance legs not really that much harder, you just have to preload your intended task into your logger and same thing, go fly. Actually it is way easier than back in the “paper� days with written declarations, cameras, turn point photos and barographs.

Dan