I've just never been able to understand why the gliding fraternity usually requires an instructor rating to fly passengers"
followed by...
"I had to take a BGA Basic Instructor rating to be granted the privilege of flying my kids and friends, but worth the effort and expense, particularly as it ironed out 10 years' worth of ingrained bad habits from solo flying ! "
'Nuff said ?
Don't know how it works in the Power World, but UK Gliding Instructors also go through continuity checks (three and five year cycles) as part of a review to ensure they're maintaining their instructional and flying skills. Additionally they must do a minimum 20 hrs and 30 launches in previous 12 months, of which 5 hrs or 25 launches should be instructing and 10 hrs or 50 launches should be solo. i.e. they're pretty current! Oh, the other reason why you need to be an instructor is because we don't do passenger carrying flights - all flights, when the second seat is occupied by a non-pilot, are considered to be of an instructional/training nature.