Cheap sailplanes

Eric Greenwell wrote:
has cross-country experience. I encourage all instructors to try
cross-country because he/she might enjoy it and might be able to instill
that joy in a student, but a good instructor should not feel less valued

Finally you get it! this is the alpha and omega of soaring. If the
student doesn't get the joy of soaring, he will not stay in the game for
long, if he does he may stay for very long. I have known many
instructors who are only able to disgust their student of soaring,
precisely because they never have experimented these sensations and only
invest themselves in trivial technical details. These people take for
granted that the student is very eager to fly and they can do everything
in their power do curb him to their discipline. Don't search long why
youngsters fly away from soaring.

because he doesn't have it.

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Michel TALON

Michel Talon wrote:

I have known many
instructors who are only able to disgust their student of soaring,
precisely because they never have experimented these sensations and only
invest themselves in trivial technical details.

Wow! I've met instructors who want to get someone to license
quickly, but I've never met one who "disgusted a student to soaring."

Flying safely, longer, higher, further and faster is the whole essense
of the joy of the "sport." The first standard (the minimum level of
safety) is the license standard in the USA, but I haven't seen
instructors poo-poo the other steps (the soaring, vs. gliding steps).

I'm surprised, and sorry, to hear that Michel's experience has
been different...
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Mark J. Boyd

Mark James Boyd wrote:
Michel Talon wrote:

I have known many
instructors who are only able to disgust their student of soaring,
precisely because they never have experimented these sensations and only
invest themselves in trivial technical details.

Wow! I've met instructors who want to get someone to license
quickly, but I've never met one who "disgusted a student to soaring."


Well, i have met a lot, and i can say it is not personal bad experience,
since personnally i had luck in this domain. I began with an old
instructor who was very nice, but had extremely strange ideas about
piloting skills (such as flying extremely uncoordinated, etc.), i avoided
carefully a good collection of retired military pilots, and finished
with very skilled and young soaring pilots, but i have certainly
observed that a good proportion of instructors here are completely
inadequate to the job (*), and make people run away. To add to the
point, i have never tried myself to become instructor, since i
don't consider i have the talent and patience to be a good
instructor. Unfortunately a lot of guys become instructor only because
it gives them a sense of being superior, or more simply to fly gratis.


(*) since the job is "gratis" one cannot ask too much, obviously.


--

Michel TALON