----- Original Message ----- From: "Pete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 10:54 AM Subject: Re: [aus-soaring] Rec License
| | Yes, my club has a similar situation. A couple of years ago we had six | instructors, but only two students. Both students were on the large | side, so that only the lightweight instructors could fly with them. As | a result the large-size instructors didn't get enough instructing hours | to keep their ratings, and lost them. | | Now we're down to three instructors, which is so few as to be scary. And | with no students right now, I can't see that we'll be qualifying any new | ones... that instructor currency requirement made a pretty big hole in | our club's viability. Without independent-ops ratings, the active glider | pilots would often be unable to fly because there wasn't an instructor | on the field. | | Since a club has to have a CFI, and any instructor has to do "enough" | instruction to keep the rating, a club cannot exist long-term without | students. The GFA scheme doesn't seem to allow for any kind of club | other than a training club. I'm with Mike on that one, I think it's a | deficiency. Hasn't there been a recent introduction of "Ground Instructor" rating, which is specifically for this scenario ? I may be way out here. Maybe someone could elucidate ? On the other hand, the RPL/PPL(Glider) does seem to have many advantages, and, if administered by GFA, would seem to fit in quite well, as long as GFA accepted the relaxation of their paternalistic approach to pilots' taking of responsibility. Maybe a change is needed in the BBL insurance to exclude RPL holders from its benefits, as I think part of the paternalism is caused by a desire to conform to the insurer's requirements. In GA, a pilot takes responsibility for his flying and for the risks he runs, apart from those risks attributable to the aircraft itself, which are covered by the third party section of the aircraft insurance. Cheers, John G. -- * 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.
