BGA Instructor Requirements

I know some badgeless instructors who are good at it
-- in terms of teaching flying skill, safety, etc.,
and who do not have badges. One of them has aerobatic
flight in gliders as a special interest, one has flown
everything going and just has no interest in heading
out any more.

I agree that they don't give the students the kind
of challenge that will make staying with the sport
a likelihood, but other instructors provide that.
These guys are not the only instructors that the students
have during their training (club environment).

I recall the time in my early days when a USA commercial
glider pilot was the only kind of instructors we had.
The trainers were the 2-22s and commercial pilot 'instructors'
was the only way to keep the sport alive in many states
far removed from CA and NY.

I don't argue for this by any means, but such people
can give sound instruction in the basics. As I understand
it, the BGA allows beginning level instructors for
this basic instruction. I'd be more interested in
seeing a tiered instructor level like that for the
US than a wholesale requirement that all instructors
be required to have a gold badge. Many clubs have
no instructor at all and can't find or produce one.
They must depend on the commercial operators for training
(sometimes in other states) and that limits club growth.
We all need a better world.

At 15:18 26 April 2007, Bill Daniels wrote:
Well then, maybe we need to say to these 'badgeless'
instructors, 'No
badge - no respect'. The motivation to get the CFIG
in the first place is
almost always peer approval so, while they will complain
loudly, most will
get the badges. The ones that refuse were probably
not instructor material
in the first place. In the meantime, it's, 'Friends
don't let friends take
instruction from badgeless instructors'.

Bill Daniels


'Cliff Hilty' wrote in message
...
I couldn't agree more! I know of several now CFIG's
that were power instructors and did there private,
commercial and CFIG ratings in one exam with right
at 20 flights and less than 4 hours in gliders and
were teaching the next day. They couldn't even thermal,
but they read the book : ) I have always argued that
if we want to grow the sport, it starts with the instructors.
I was lucky enough (at the same school) to have an
instructor that had flown diamond distance in a 1-26
several times and taught from that perspective.

PS. One of the fast trackers mentioned, a year later
totaled a 2-33 on a takeoff thermal when he broke
the
rope and spun it in with a ride passenger. No one
hurt
thank god.

At 13:48 26 April 2007, Bill Daniels wrote:

'126Driver' wrote in message
groups.com...
The three levels of instructor is interesting and
makes sense.
Another difference seems to be orientation in that
there is some
expectation that the student may fly cross country
some day. I don't
think this is part of USA instruction. I would also
guess 80% of the
US instructors have no official cross counry credentials
like the
Silver C. But again, this is probably not a problem
as you can gain
the knowledge to teach cross country skills by reading
the texts on
the topic.

thanks,

It becomes a problem when the instructor conveys the
idea to his students
that, 'only crazy people go XC'. This is, unfortunately,
not uncommon under
the US system.

Try suggesting to instructors that they get some cross
country experience
and you'll be amazed at the response. I know an instructor
that keeps
complaining that, 'Instructors get no respect'. I
asked him if he held any
FAI badges and he said no and he didn't want any.
I said, 'Well?....

I hate to say it, but maybe we need a change in the
FAA instructor applicant
experience requirements (and renewal requirements)
to include at least a
Silver Badge.

Bill Daniels

At 15:42 26 April 2007, Nyal Williams wrote:
snip
As I understand
it, the BGA allows beginning level instructors for
this basic instruction. I'd be more interested in
seeing a tiered instructor level like that for the
US than a wholesale requirement that all instructors
be required to have a gold badge.
snip

AFAIK, a Basic Instructor is effectively limited to
upper air work (but I'm sure someone will correct me
if I'm wrong about that), so someone new to gliding
fairly quickly needs an Assistant or Full instructor.
Where I fly has an evening for ab-initios and another
for the Bronze group, all instructors for those are
AIs or FIs. As to gold badges - one of our Bronze
instructors must have enough diamond flights for a
tiara of his very own, but thankfully he's not that
sort of guy! (and fitting it under the canopy without
damaging him, it or the canopy might be problematic)
Two more of the four do XC flying (and I'm pretty sure
have gold), will ask the 4th next time I see him.

My view is that we are very lucky to have these guys
teaching us, especially as they all normally give up
an evening a week for 7 months of the year.

On Apr 25, 7:10 am, 126Driver wrote:
Would a USA instructor easily qualify as a BGA
instructor. Or would they need additional training.

My experience of this is over 20 years ago. I returned to UK after
earning my US CFI, Gold, and 2 diamonds and with 150 hours in my log
book was quickly granted a UK assistant instructor rating. I probably
was not given a full briefing on the restrictions as the CFI ( the C
is Chief for the US folks)had a little word with me after I soloed a
student without talking to him first.

I did some training at Lasham for full cat and would have received it
except that I got tired watching the rain while I waited in the hope
of flying and returned to US.

Andy

The FAA criteria for a CFI-G in the US are apparently
based on old criteria from the 1920s and 1930s with
some updating in the pursuit of safety.

In my view, it would be useful if the SSA devised two
or three levels of SSA Instructor recognition similar
to the BGA standards. I don't believe I would base
this on badges; we have many pilots who fly cross country
but don't bother with SSA badges. Further, in the
proper location, one can earn all the diamonds without
having made a dozen X/C flights, and further still,
one could have earned the badges decades ago and not
have done any X/C flying since that time. I believe
some combination of total hours of X/C, the number
of X/C flights, total distance flown, and recency of
this experience would provide a better indicator of
qualifications.

We already have SSA Instructor, and SSA Master Instructor;
why not elaborate that a bit and give it more publicity
and status?

At 20:12 26 April 2007, Andy wrote:
On Apr 25, 7:10 am, 126Driver wrote:
Would a USA instructor easily qualify as a BGA
instructor. Or would they need additional training.

My experience of this is over 20 years ago. I returned
to UK after
earning my US CFI, Gold, and 2 diamonds and with 150
hours in my log
book was quickly granted a UK assistant instructor
rating. I probably
was not given a full briefing on the restrictions as
the CFI ( the C
is Chief for the US folks)had a little word with me
after I soloed a
student without talking to him first.

I did some training at Lasham for full cat and would
have received it
except that I got tired watching the rain while I waited
in the hope
of flying and returned to US.

Andy

Not directly on topic, but a variation of a review of training philosophy.

http://www.gfa.org.au/ops/training.php

Overview of the BGA system, for the interested:

http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/ins...quirements.htm


Dan

On Apr 27, 7:07 pm, Dan G wrote:
Overview of the BGA system, for the interested:

http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/ins...quirements.htm

And further, explaining the limitations on what a BI can teach:
http://www.gliding.co.uk/forms/Basic...nformation.pdf