Flight Instruction
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March 03, 2022
Is your flight review an “Every two year, check-the-box” exercise? In airplanes, does your CFI/buddy give you a sign-off after reviewing part 91 over a cup of coffee at an airport 30 minutes away (conveniently a one-hour round trip in order to meet the Part 61 flight time requirement)? In gliders, three quick tows into the pattern? Is your recurrency an obligation
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August 27, 2020
Editor Note - With schools quickly getting fired up again in some form or another, I thought it might be nice for our readers to read a traditional summer essay written by a newly minted CFI-G who is currently going to college, and represents the future of our sport. Soaring is not dead, folks, it is simply going through a handoff from the baby boomers being the old heads and mentoring Generation
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July 02, 2020
Returning to flying post ‘Rona
Disclaimer: I am not saying don’t practice. I am not saying don’t try to get better. I am saying do it properly.
Lots of Time Off
Many of us have had quite a bit of time off from flying this spring. Perhaps we have been flying Condor, perhaps simply working on home improvement projects and forgetting about that expensive toy out in
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March 26, 2020
View from the top: DPE Corner
Over the course of my career as a pilot, I’ve taken numerous check rides; a part of being a scheduled airline pilot means that you have to take one at least every 12 months. A couple of summers ago I had come to the conclusion that sitting down for a practical test should be a no-stress event for me… boy, was I mistaken! The final step for any pilot to receive
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March 12, 2020
So You Want a Summer Job?
About a year ago, a year after I graduated High School, I got a text from Garret Willat that read “you want a summer job?” which is quite comical looking back because he probably didn’t think I’d say yes. But I did, and a countdown was started to get to SkySailing in Warner Springs, California, get my Commercial and CFIG check rides done, and start
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November 01, 2018
Your CFI Certificate is Waiting for You
So you want to have people try and kill you for your fun? I mean you want to share soaring with others and teach others how to fly by becoming a glider flight instructor? Well the SSA announced on October 31, 2018, there is a scholarship available for those looking at getting their CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) rating.
About once a year I
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October 25, 2018
So once you get your license you only need to fly with an instructor every 2 years for a flight review. This 2-3 hour block of time is supposed to keep you safe, make sure you are up to date on FAR's, your flying abilities are up to FAA standards, etc. There are some Advisory Circulars and other publications giving guidance on how to conduct the flight review, they have also been known to cure insomnia
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October 18, 2018
We have a new instructor at Sky Sailing and since one of our requirements is to have all of our pre-solo students do spins, I figured it would be good to brush up and review the spin lesson that we like to see.
Somewhere in our conversation we started talking about having students try to relax. Watching their shoulders, holding the stick with 3 fingers, not double fisting the stick etc. I wrote
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February 01, 2018
When I am trying to teach aero-tow to students I spend most of the time telling them to 'get the wings level'. Most of the time they over control and try too quickly to get aligned. This results in going back and forth behind the towplane.
Most of the time the student overshoots. I find it easier to teach them to just level off and get in control of the glider, even if that means you are out
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October 12, 2017
I have touched on this topic before, and many books have been written on the subject of cross-country soaring. However, I think a simple thought process is lost.
A few weeks ago, I was with a student, attempting to get him started in the daunting new world of cross-country soaring. It was a weak day, so we were able to use the engine in the Stemme to quickly explore lifts that were very difficult