Licensing order

In article Matt writes:
Hi all,
I've been looking into getting my private pilot's license. I've taken
test flights in a cessna (172SP) and a glider (GROB 103). I really
liked the glider, but I also like the benefits of the private.

What order would be best to get both licenses? Should I get a private
first with a glider addon or go for the glider first and work toward
the private?

Also, would getting a private be worthwhile even if I mostly fly
gliders?


Ignoring the sport pilot world for a moment, the certificate for either
is a private. The issue is which order to get the ratings.

I would recommend getting a private, airplane single engine land, first.
You can practice a lot of things at much lower cost (both money and time),
and get a level of comfort in the air. Yes, that 172SP probably costs about
$110/hour to rent, but you don't pay extra for tows.

Looking back at my log, I managed to get 11 landings in 1.2 hours in
a Cessna 150 one day while working on landings. Doing this in a glider
would have been much slower, as well as more expensive. Most other
flight practice is more efficient when one doesn't need to keep getting
tows up to do it a bit at a time.

Then, get some experience in the power plane for a while. The time
and comfort will do you well. It has been said that things all start
to become comfortable and natural around 100 hours (for power pilots
anyway).

If you want to be more precise about your flying, get some instrument
training. You may not care about the rating, but some of the training
will help a lot with precision of flying. There are other ways to do
it, but some good instrument training might save your life someday.

Then, the glider can teach you things you didn't learn before, like
how long wings are different, and other things. It is easier to learn
them in the "short" glider flights once you have experience with the
rest.

Just my opinion.

Alan