"Platoon" instructing versus dedicated...

On May 30, 6:16*pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Wed, 30 May 2012 06:40:02 -0700, JC wrote:
Interesting thread..

Getting [newly qualified pilots] to stay is what we see as the
biggest problem. My opinion is that for many people the sport just takes
too much commitment.

A view from across the pond. I've heard it said that the smaller, weekend-
only UK clubs have a similar problem, but that's just hearsay because I
haven't experienced that.

I am new to gliding, but I am getting on in years, so I learn more
slowly than the young folks. I also don't get out more than once a
week, so it is taking me a while to make progress. Our club has a
"duty instructor" on weekends who is assigned from a list, like the
tow pilot, and the usual duty is one or two half days a month..

It works well for me. I can fly whenever I am available, and I get
different points of view. The club issues a training logbook with lots
of tasks and levels so both I and the instructor can see what needs to
be done. The club is, sadly, not overwhelmed with students so I can
get as much training as I want.

The alternative of a fixed instructor and a set schedule, would
perhaps get my skills up faster, but I would probably come out less
since I would have to coordinate with someone else. As it is, the club
is a place to "hang out" whenever I can and there is always something
to do.

Many years ago I belonged to a sailing club with a very active
training program. Training sessions involved crowds of students and
instructors on the dock paired up randomly in a first come, first
served format. The lessons were disorganized but the social life was
great. They later went to a more organized plan with scheduled times
and instructors, so there were far few people hanging about,... and
the club collapsed.


John Halpenny

On Thu, 31 May 2012 16:45:28 -0700, John Halpenny wrote:

Many years ago I belonged to a sailing club with a very active training
program. Training sessions involved crowds of students and instructors
on the dock paired up randomly in a first come, first served format. The
lessons were disorganized but the social life was great. They later went
to a more organized plan with scheduled times and instructors, so there
were far few people hanging about,... and the club collapsed.

We're not collapsing, but I see something similar since my club switched
to bookable training rather than the traditional flying list at the
launch point.

I learned with the list: worked for me, as I got solo in six months of
weekend-only flying. I learnt on the winch in a system that guaranteed at
least two launches each time you got to the top of the queue, and three
if demand was lower. There was generally a reasonable number of people
around the launch point, so ground handling muscle was usually not a
problem and at busy times we had enough helpers to manage almost 20
launches an hour using a dual-drum winch.

Now that almost all training is booked there simply aren't very many
people at the launch point: last Saturday PM I was the only designated
launch point marshal (there are normally two) and so was very busy and
forced to rely on students and those waiting to fly to keep things moving
because nobody else was there to help by retrieving landed gliders,
fetching winch cables, etc, etc. I accept that booked training is
probably better for students, but it wrecks the launch point social scene
and makes life much harder for those running the flight line.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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