JAA Commercial pilot flying glider

[TheodoreK]

Hello,
i am commercial pilot with fatpl(a) and i wanna start to flying with gliders, i have some questions
1.what about the regulations in this case?
2.must do all the training for glider?
and about the hours, can i wrote the hours from glider in my logbook?
thank you

[Duchess_Driver]

You should keep different types of flying in different logbooks - there are too many differences for one 'catch-all' logbook.

Whilst you're general flying skills will help - there is a lot more to flying a glider than meets the eye. Visit your nearest field and ask there what credits you'd get and what they reckon the conversion process will involve.

[chrisN]

It will depend upon the country or region in which you want to do gliding. If USA, I know nothing that could help.

If UK, I could help a little – we have several ATPLs who have joined my gliding club and are now solo glider pilots. At present there is no mandatory/state-issued glider pilot licence in the UK, but that is going to change under EASA, during a transition period from April this year to April 2015. I understand that it will not affect things until 2013 or 2014.

If elsewhere in “Europe” (i.e., where EASA rules apply), it will depend upon the local state of affairs, but many or most have a formal gliding licence already. You would need local expertise to advise about whichever country you are interested in.

Chris N

[mary meagher]

Theodore K, you have a commercial license, well done. And you would like to start flying gliders...

If you want to instruct in gliders, there is a lot to learn, and intensive courses in gliding instruction in the UK that must be taken, and you must receive approval of the Chief Flying Instructor of a British Club before you are even accepted on an instructor's course.

As Duchess Driver has pointed out, there are differences in the two disciplines, and separate logbooks should be maintained. As for motor glider license and instructing, these too are special disciplines. Thank goodness the ESA regulations for European Standards are not yet in force, and so you will find different requirements in each European Country. Visit your local gliding club first, to find out what the local rules are, and to have your first experience flying in a glider.

In the United States, unfortunately, gliding is a poor relation to power flying (because petrol - gasoline is much cheaper over there). It is actually governed by the Federal Aviation Authority, which doesn't know a lot about gliding, and actually will credit as an instructor a pilot who has not even flown cross country in a glider! (please tell me I'm wrong about this, you Yanks?)
Canada? DAR, what is the deal up there?

All I know is when I took my instructor (in gliders) UK ticket to the GADO office in Orlando, together with my British PPL, they issued me a cute little certificate that said on Page One, "Commercial Pilot" ! and on the second page, in smaller print, mentioned that I was only qualified as a Commercial Pilot in Gliders.....

Most of this information is at least ten years out of date.....

[S-Works]

Where dd the OP mention wanting to be an Instructor? They were just asking about gliding.

Mary, your insular gliding world response, just reminded me why I gave up gliding..... :ugh:

Them and us, them and us......

[India Four Two]

mary,

While Pilot DAR is asleep, I'll respond.

Transport Canada issues Glider Pilot's licences and Instructor Ratings and Motorglider Ratings, but the whole business is pretty much self-administered by the gliding clubs under the umbrella of the Soaring Association of Canada (SAC).

Applications for licences and ratings are signed off by Club CFIs and then sent to TC.

Concerning instructing, many of my instructing hours were acquired before I had done any cross-country flying, but that is not really relevant to circuit flying and local soaring. I don't think any of my students suffered because of my lack Gold or Diamond flights. ;)

[Whopity]

As you hold a JAA licence you are probably in Europe. Some countries have glider pilots licences whilst others do not. That is all likely to change under EASA but the time frame for the LAPL which will cover soaring is such that it will probably not be in place until 2015. Until that time you will probably have to comply with the National rules of whichever country you wish to glide in so the best course is to contact the gliding association in that country to find out the rules.

As for logging hours its your log book you can do whatever you want.

[Genghis the Engineer]

You should keep different types of flying in different logbooks - there are too many differences for one 'catch-all' logbook.
.

Nah, just use a spare column and total it separately.

I fly SEP, 3 axis microlights, flexwings, and have done a bit of gliding as well. My 22 year old commercial logbook still manages to handle all that fine, all I needed to do was put stickers over some of the unused column headings.

I do agree that gliding skills cover a lot of new stuff, so just settle down to enjoy a chunk of fun learning.

G

[BackPacker]

Same here. One logbook contains everything. Just add a few extra columns as required.

Another thing that you might need to be aware of when starting gliding, coming from a Power background, is that the atmosphere and expectations are completely different from Power flying.

In powered flying, you show up a few minutes before your booked slot, shake hands with the professional instructor if you have a lesson, do the preflight, go flying, land, park the plane, pay and go home.

In contrast, gliding is a far more social activity. A few (commercial) clubs aside, most clubs are run by volunteers and that includes you. You are expected to be there for the morning briefing and to get the planes out of the hangar and into the field. Then you are expected to help out on the field retrieving gliders, manning the winch, wingwalk and so forth, until your flight is due. And you are only expected to leave once all planes have been washed and are back in the hangar. If you're unlucky this may mean you spend a full day being busy, but your logbook only shows three 6-minute flights.

Once you are solo this gets slightly better, and things get a lot better once you have your own aircraft. But even then you're supposed to help out with various other duties when you're not flying. And eventually you will be pressurized into becoming a (non-paid) instructor - although you may get a few perks like free food when you spend your day instructing.

In addition to this, most members flight hours and number of landings are tallied up, and this is converted into a number of hours of "winter work": During the winter when there's little or no flying going on, members are supposed to show up anyway, pick a task from the (huge) list, and spend a number of hours on that task. Those tasks varies from maintaining the aircraft themselves, painting or cleaning the club house, cutting the grass, to calling prospective members and so forth.

So gliding is a far more social activity than powered flying. Without all these volunteer hours put in, virtually no gliding clubs would be able to survive (or offer the prices they currently offer). And there are all sorts of systems in place to make sure people put in the hours, within the limits of their ability.

So getting involved in gliding, beyond a few trial lessons, requires a significant commitment in time. Make sure that's what you want, and have available, before making that commitment.

[Genghis the Engineer]

To a lesser extent, similar club-support structures exist within the microlight and (overlapping) homebuilt world.

I'm in a microlight club where we will regularly contribute to runway maintenance, sorting out the clubhouse and hangar, bits of PR, filling in rabbit holes (a lot of that!). Some people may also belong to large "cheap flying" syndicates within those clubs which starts to bring in some aircraft maintenance effort.

As Backpacker rightly said, true club flying can be really quite different to the commercial school environment where most powered pilots start their flying lives.

G