Stan....
I only have really one thing to add. If someone else was to take my daughter flying I would want her in the most overly serviced, reliable, well equipped and piloted aircraft available.
Many, if not most Air Cadet gliding instructors have sons or daughters. None of them would be prepared to take any risks with their own sons or daughters, let alone anybody else's. It was drummed into us that we had a very special responsibility to be able to train youngsters to fly Auntie Bettie's aircraft even before they were able to drive a motor car. My CO was fully aware of his part in all of this and would not allow any potential instructor to carry any cadet passengers until they had carried out at least 100 solo circuits of our airfield.
cats_five.....
The Air Cadet gliding organisation is not about training glider pilots to soar their glider. In my time it was to train the cadet to fly three safe solo circuits of the airfield - a skill boost that they could not obtain anywhere else at age 16. At that time the BGA required three solo circuits (both directions) to qualify for their A and B certificates. Bearing in mind that the average circuit in a Cadet MkIII was three minutes (less for launch failures) Pobjoy is indeed correct - it can be done.
The sequence or instruction was split into two stages.
Stage one - Handling
1 - Familiarisation flight
2 - Primary effect of controls - Normal straight glide
3 - Launch - Further effects of controls - Landing
4 - Turning
5 - Stalling
6 - Stalling in a turn
7 - Spinning and recovery
8 - Recovery from unusual attitudes
Stage two - Circuit Procedure
9 - The normal circuit
10 - The low circuit
11 - The high circuit
12 - (a) Cable break (High)
12 - (b) Cable break (Medium)
12 - (c) Cable break (Low)
13 - Pre- solo check
I went solo on my 21st launch on my second day's flying at Central Gliding School Hawkinge, having covered the above exercises, including three launch failures as above. I was not able to thermal the glider (probably unable to recognise a thermal if I saw one) but I am convinced (as were the CGS instructors) that I could fly my glider safely around the airfield 3 times.
I went on to join a weekend Gliding School and progress such that I could fly accurate 360° turns and even to fly in thermals......and, after some years (and lots more training and check flights with my CO/CFI and annual checks with the Trappers) sent many a cadet solo after having successfully completed their flying syllabus in a very short time period.
Sadly we seem to have thrown the baby out with the water with this current debacle surrounding Syerston and it's operation.
20:20 hindsight is a wonderful thing, but to maintain some continuity gliding operations should have been curtailed such that cadet flying should have been suspended (seems that is what happened) but instructor continuation flying could have been allowed. There must have been a small number of airframes that they could have made airworthy shortly after the "pause" was announced. Here it is two years later and.........no cadets have flown for two years, ergo no cadet solos, no staff cadets (potential instructors) to take the operations forward. Oh dear, oh dear