Originally Posted by
Olympia 463
OK, so there is no problem fixing busted glass ships. I reserve my judgement on that point though.
Why is it necessary to have a glider costing megabucks which is required only to do circuits? Albeit 6 minute circuits, as opposed to the T31 which usually did about 4 mins. That's a lot of money for two minutes extra in the air. How do you justify that to the taxpayer? Will pupils go solo in two thirds of the time in a Viking? I doubt it.
The ATC is not a gliding club where the solo pilots expect to be taught thermal and ridge soaring and field landings so that they can go on cross countries. Once a Cadet has had his three solos that's it for 90% of them I guess. They never fly solo again. Why not just go back to the good old T31 which was cheap as chips to make and repair? We all know that the really tricky bit of flying is landing. You would agree I think that landing a K13 is a probably lot easier than a Viking, and therefore can be taught more quickly.
I maintain that the whole idea of how flying should operate in the ATC needs a root and branch review. What exactly are you trying to do?
Totally agree; I've been saying the same thing all along but then nobody ever takes any notice of me maybe because I advocated the use of (horror of horrors) microlights to supplement (just supplement not replace) Air Cadet flying and in fact was a 'recognised' (by HQAC) microlight AEF pilot in the '90s as well as being a P2 when I was a staff cadet many years before.
(By the way, even winch launched cadets only do one solo nowadays to qualify)