In my view there has been a good deal of horse-sense written about this subject. In the past I've been a bit cheesed off by the amount of anti-GFA stuff written on this forum. Perhaps I don't keep myself well enough informed. When I belong to organisations where people are willing to take on the burdens of office and deal with all the administrative issues I generally like to let them get on with it.
But it's slowly dawning on me that my peak body, the GFA, appears to be working against my desire to have a licence rather than a number of badges and certificates. When I first read about the move toward a recreational pilots licence with endorsements for particular branches of aviation I thought "What a sensible move, I'll look forward to that." It never occurred to me that the GFA would oppose it. Why does the idea appeal to me? It's been said before. Mainly it's because I'm embarrassed when I can't give a simple answer a simple question. Friends, relatives and acquaintances ask the question constantly: "So, you've got a gliding licence have you?" I answer "Well, not really, I have an A badge and a B badge and I'm working on my C badge and my passenger endorsement." From the looks on their faces I might just as well have said "my woodworking badge, my needlework badge and my first aid badge." Personally I would give a lot, a medical, an examination, a fee, sacrifice my soul to a centralised bureaucracy, just to be able to answer the question with "Yes". And it's not just people who don't know much about aviation who are perplexed. It's also hard to explain to pilots from other disciplines (and countries). I have no beef with my training nor with the syllabus. I just hate having to go into long winded explanations which never seem to convince my listeners (that is if they're still listening). Sometimes I'm tempted to avoid the direct question and say something like "Yes, I'm certified to fly gliders solo" in a confident, self assured way - but I sense that while this may satisfy most, it's at best a half truth. -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
