When to best train glider and power?

I believe that it is important to remember we are all PILOTS. As both
an active glider and power instructor I find that glider pilots benefit
from power training--and power pilots benefit from glider training.

Where to start often depends on availability and finances. Certainly
here in Eastern PA it is far less expensive to earn a glider rating
than a power rating. It may also require quite a bit more travel time.


I do believe that a student should not mix instruction. Certainly
"intro" and basic flights are not a problem, but some of the basics of
landing power vs gliders are quite different, and can be quite
confusing to the student (law of primacy). My suggestion is pick one
and go for it. After you get one rating feel free to add another. In
my club, Philadelphia Glider Council, we have quite a number of dual
rated pilots, and several CFIs who are dual rated.

Flying is FUN--go for all of it. While you are at it add ratings such
as seaplane, multi engine, taildragger endorsement, etc and enjoy as
much as you can afford.

Skip Guimond

The time is take-off to landing, and the price is in Canadian $'s. $1
Canadian costs about $0.80 US.

Block time (one time payment for unlimited hours for the season) for SGS
1-26 & 1-23 for $300, and those plus a 1-34 and Grob CS 77 for $500. We use
a flight card system that records the times.

Charles

"Bryan Mason" wrote in message
...
Charles Petersen wrote:
Where I fly in Canada (www.yorksoaring.com), the cost of training to a
glider pilot's licence is about $2,000 Canadian (US$1,600), and a private
pilot's licence power training cost is around 5 times that at about
$10,000 Canadian (US$8,000).

The glider training costs include club membership, tows and glider
rental. Instruction is free from volunteers. As for the youth, twice
each summer, the first two weeks of July and again the first two weeks of
August, we offer a Flight Camp where we take students from Ab Initio to
Licence, for about $1,600 Canadian (by now you can do the math). Our
club gliders rent from 30 to 50 cents a minute, and tows are $25.

Is that "dry tach"? Seriously, though, how is the time measured? Is it
"check out" time to "check in" time or is there some other kind of
instrumentation. As a power student pilot, I'm just curious.

-- Bryan

Well, come on up and get it. We operate 7 days a week, weather permitting,
from the end of May until the end of September. We have a campground with
hot showers and a kitchen, or there are nice local B & B's. No initiation
fee, and annual membership is under $400 US.

We'd love to see you.

Charles

"Doug" wrote in message
ups.com...
Yes, well free instruction helps the cost. If you can get that, go for
it. I flew an hour and a half with an instructor and it was more per
hour than renting a 172 with an instructor. The tows weren't cheap, I
had to rent the glider and pay the instructor. I believe the short tows
I had were about $30 each and I had three of them. The instructor was
about $35 an hour and then there was glider rental. But it would only
take me about 5 such lessons to add on a glider rating on top of my
airplane rating. Also, did you include the club membership? Your $1600
seems awfully low, if you can get it, it is, indeed a good deal. Go for
it!

In article .com,
wrote:

I do believe that a student should not mix instruction. Certainly
"intro" and basic flights are not a problem, but some of the basics of
landing power vs gliders are quite different, and can be quite
confusing to the student (law of primacy).

Um ... they are? In what way?

As far as I can tell the basics are exacly the same and the differences
are minor, such as maintaining constant speed vs maintaining constant
altitude (though you maintain constant speed in power while
climing/descending, just like a glider), use of throttle vs airbrakes
for glidepath control, and different items in the checklist. On the
other hand I don't have a power license and have only soloed the common
training types such as 152 and Tomahawk. (Though I have landed small
turbprops e.g. Caravan and Nomad dual)

Based only on my own experience learning to fly, I think it would have
been very beneficial at one point to head to the aero club and do half
an hour of circuits because I wa having trouble getting touchdowns
right. Looking at other people spending lots of money on the towplane
doing repeated circuits I suspect the same might be true of them too.
An up-and-down circuit uses about three minutes of time for both the
glider and the towplane, and it's about the same three minutes for a
Cessna too at our airfield. But a Cessna costs NZ$150 an hour, while
glider plus towplane is about $400 an hour.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

I started as a power pilot and am working on my glider rating. While
knowing how to fly is kind of like riding a bike, I was surprised at how
much rudder is needed when flying gliders vs. power. It took me a half a
dozen flights before I got the hang of keeping the string centered.

I suspect that its probably a lot easier to transition from gliders to power
than the other way around, primarily for that reason.

Mike Schumann

"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
wrote:

I do believe that a student should not mix instruction. Certainly
"intro" and basic flights are not a problem, but some of the basics of
landing power vs gliders are quite different, and can be quite
confusing to the student (law of primacy).

Um ... they are? In what way?

As far as I can tell the basics are exacly the same and the differences
are minor, such as maintaining constant speed vs maintaining constant
altitude (though you maintain constant speed in power while
climing/descending, just like a glider), use of throttle vs airbrakes
for glidepath control, and different items in the checklist. On the
other hand I don't have a power license and have only soloed the common
training types such as 152 and Tomahawk. (Though I have landed small
turbprops e.g. Caravan and Nomad dual)

Based only on my own experience learning to fly, I think it would have
been very beneficial at one point to head to the aero club and do half
an hour of circuits because I wa having trouble getting touchdowns
right. Looking at other people spending lots of money on the towplane
doing repeated circuits I suspect the same might be true of them too.
An up-and-down circuit uses about three minutes of time for both the
glider and the towplane, and it's about the same three minutes for a
Cessna too at our airfield. But a Cessna costs NZ$150 an hour, while
glider plus towplane is about $400 an hour.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------