What percentage have a power pilot license?

"COLIN LAMB" wrote in message
.net...
......
One problem with a power plane rating is that the glider club will try to
suck you into being a tow pilot.

They say that tow pilot is the only usefull power pilot, others just spoil
fuel.

wrote:
But, I do have the option of going for the powered pilot license first
- then the glider license second. Any thoughts?
cheers, Victor

Did glider first then power, BUT...
I suggest (for FAA ratings):

Achieve proficiency at takeoffs and landings in power. Easier to do multiple approaches.
Get to solo (a few of them) in glider. You will learn 100% more about flight controls and weather.
Finish Private in SEL. This includes cross-country.
Add glider rating.
Get cross-country instruction in glider.
Have fun.
You only take only one written test, and get the best of both.
Presently I fly 95% glider and 5% power.
Jim

wrote:
Hi all, I decided to take the plunge (no pun intended) and start
flying. I thought about going straight for a private glider license.
But, I do have the option of going for the powered pilot license first
- then the glider license second. Any thoughts? How many here have
both? Did you get your powered pilot license first?

First, I have yet to obtain any rating at all, so take this with a grain
of salt.

My first flight (aside from airline stuff) was in a glider when I was
maybe ten years old. I loved it, but I was too afraid to touch the
controls when offered.

A bit later on I started taking powered lessons. I was probably 11 or so
at the time. I took it very slow since I couldn't afford the time or money
to go often, plus there wasn't much of a point in going fast as I was
several years away from soloing or getting my license no matter what.

I kept it up at about once a month for years, soloed at 16, lost interest
in the whole thing and quit.

Fast forward ten years, I'm done with school, have the money to go flying
and realize I want to get back into it. I'd been playing with flight
simulators for a very long time and had recently become interested in
gliders in the sim, so I decided to try them in real life.

This past July I took my second glider flight, and I was *hooked*. It was
amazing. Then I came back for my next lesson and it was even better. Every
day I fly feels like it's the best it can ever get, and every day I fly I
prove the previous day wrong. I soloed in September on my 26th flight and
I'm loving every minute of it.

I love how connected you are with the airplane. To me, a glider feels more
like something you put on than something you get into. It's easy to forget
that it's even there and become almost one with the machine, something I
never even had an hint of in powered planes.

I also enjoy the club environment. Yeah, I spend a lot more time on the
ground doing stuff so other people can fly than I spend actually flying,
but on the other hand I'm constantly surrounded by really great people who
almost universally know way more about flying than I do, and their
enthusiasm is deeply contagious.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to try both and see how you feel. There
are a lot of people who appear to enjoy flying powered planes a great
deal, even though I never really figured it out. I think it's more
important to do the one you really feel great about first. Learning to fly
is hard work and you need to be able to stay motivated. This counts for a
lot more than minor details like not having to take a second written exam
if you get your powered rating first.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

Glider Rating: 1982
Power Rating: 1992
Got Glider: 1994

Fly glider as much as I can.
Fly power plane once every two years. With instructor.
For Flight Review.

Thought I would get checked out to tow, but insurance
won't even consider it unless I have at least 200 -
250 hours of POWER time. I've got about 100 hours
in power. At our local airfield, a somewhat less than
almost pristine Cezzna 172 goes for US$105/hr (wet).
(Far less than pristine...) So, let's say I would
need 150 hours of additional power time to get the
insurance people to consider me eligible for towing.
$105/hr x 150 hours = a lot of money that I don't
have and if I did, I would spend it on soaring.

It would be nice to be able to make a trip in a GA
aircraft, but it sure is more fun to fly a sailplane!

Plus, I'll never get tagged to fly the towplane...

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
LS1-d

I had always wanted to fly sailplanes but when I had the opportunity to
learn to fly, I opted for power since I lived in Mesa, not two miles
from Falcon field. I added on the glider rating two years later out at
Turf Soaring. The only advantage to this sequence wat that I was able
to get a lot out of the way in the power training, airspace, charts,
radio, etc. that I did not have to worry during glider training. While
I definitely learned more about "flying" getting my glider rating, I
did not feel that I needed to "unlearn" anything. It's great to have
both ratings, but you need to work to stay current in both. I have not
flown power in the last two years, as I have been spending all my time
(and money) on soaring. It is definitely more fun. My intention is to
fly power during the winter and soar during the summer.

If you can afford to do both, I doubt that the sequence is all that
important. It has more to do with your personal situation, time and
money.

Hey guys thanks a bunch for the comments and your experiences! Really
appreciated.

I'm going to call up the Puget Sound Soaring Association to see if they
are flying this weekend. Assuming it doesn't rain! they operate at
Bergseth Airfield in Enumclaw, WA. Only about an hour from Seattle
where I'm at.

I used to fly scale RC sailplanes decades ago. Had a Glasflugel 604
with a 12ft wingspan, custom winglets, flaps and modified airfoil cross
section. Time to do it for real.

Victor

All that stuff you learned flying RC will help you learn to fly the
"full-scale". In some ways it's easier, because of the immediate feedback of
feeling what the aircraft is doing. Plus you don't have to reverse your
thinking when you fly back toward the field. ;-)

" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hey guys thanks a bunch for the comments and your experiences! Really
appreciated.

I'm going to call up the Puget Sound Soaring Association to see if they
are flying this weekend. Assuming it doesn't rain! they operate at
Bergseth Airfield in Enumclaw, WA. Only about an hour from Seattle
where I'm at.

I used to fly scale RC sailplanes decades ago. Had a Glasflugel 604
with a 12ft wingspan, custom winglets, flaps and modified airfoil cross
section. Time to do it for real.

Victor

I was in this position several years ago, and I have to echo that while
soaring is great, powered flying can go on year round.
I ended up soloing in powered first, then years later started gliding,
got the PP-glider rating, followed it up with a motorglider
endorsement; and THEN went and got PP-SEL.

From an efficiency standpoint it is better use of your time to get
powered out of the way first, then you only have to take one written
test (at least in the US). Taking two writtens was a pain, not really
hard, just a pain with a busy schedule.

Unfortunately I live in an area without any clubs or commercial
operators within an hours drive so I end up flying powered most of the
time. I used to own a Ka-6CR (and an Ercoupe) and while I'd love a
motorglider, there are very few that are reasonably priced that would
fit in my hanger (ie I need folding wings). There are very few for sale
to begin with anyway.

Ryan

My suggestion if you have a soaring operation close by that will allow
you to fly reasonably often with reasonable expense then do the glider
1st.

If you have to travel or availabity or cost are issues then I would
recommend at least going up to Solo in a power airplane. You can learn
a lot a lot of basics of a flying in a few hours of power instruction
and power instruction is typically easier to locate and schedule. If
you can find one, find an instructor that teaches both glider and power
(rather hard to find I suspect). At the very least let your instructor
know what you are planning, they can help taylor your instuction to
your goals.

Having the skills to solo a power airplane will greatly accelerate your
progress in the glider. However if the glider/instructor/towplane and
tow pilots are all readly available and reasonably priced then go
glider only.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
HP16T
Boise, ID

wrote:
Hi all, I decided to take the plunge (no pun intended) and start
flying. I thought about going straight for a private glider license.
But, I do have the option of going for the powered pilot license first
- then the glider license second. Any thoughts? How many here have
both? Did you get your powered pilot license first?


I have both: I started with power at the age of twenty-two, courtesy of
the USAF, but only got around to flying sailplanes when I retired at age
sixty from a major airline.

My personal recommendation is to start with the glider, even though I
did not do it that way. However, no single progression track will suit
everyone. The proper direction for you may become more clear if you
examine the different kinds of flying, and how they relate to soaring.
Talk to pilots with different backgrounds and perspectives, as you are
doing here to some extent.

As a former part-owner of a Decathlon and a Cessna 182, I can understand
why the average light plane pilot might become bored with the $100
hamburger routine after a few years -- beside the fact that it gets
expensive. Here, the situations that teach you the most lasting lessons
about flying are ones you are wisely advised to avoid, or else you
rarely get to fly with someone who can mentor you constructively over a
long period of time, and your progress stagnates. Flying under these
conditions can easily become repetitive and uninteresting.

Flying a 757 brings all the benes (at least it used to) plus the
hamburgers are served in much better surroundings, and you can get out
of Detroit in January on somebody else's dime. You'd be nuts to turn it
down, but it's not where you start.

Less surprisingly than might be assumed, the type of flying which has
seemed to me most closely related to flying modern sailplanes is flying
fighter aircraft (bear with me for a moment). Probably because in each
type one is almost continuously concerned with gaining maximum
performance from the aircraft in all phases of flight -- because of the
mission, and because that's just the way fighter pilots are wired. The
craft is designed and constructed for a demanding purpose with as few
compromises as possible, and it fits you pretty closely. The visibility
is excellent in both, and you have a purpose for being there beyond just
taking off from point "A", navigating to point "B", and landing without
breaking anything, even when you aren't actually fighting, or sailplane
racing. Energy conservation, application, and mental focus are essential
to survival/success. Unless one starts by flying light planes in Alaska
or in some other hostile environment where putting the airplane to work
-- using it as a tool, more than a toy -- is the name of the game, one
is unlikely to find the same kind of absorption in aviation -- at least
for very long.

When the seed is first planted in gliders (as it was with so many of
Germany's WW2-era LuftWaffe pilots, and is true today of some USAF
Academy Cadets) you can be born into the very heart and soul of flight,
grow without distractions in understanding and respect for flight itself
and for others who share the passion and the knowledge. It's the
shortest way home, if the sky is that place for you.

If you later decide you want to add fuel to the fire, you can do that --
and you'll have one hell of a head start. After that, become a tow pilot
and an instructor, and help nourish a new generation.


Jack