Student Progression at Evergreen Soaring

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One of the standard questions for any newcomer to the Evergreen Soaring Club (ES) is; “How much time and effort does it take to become a glider pilot?”  Our old web site gave some optimistic information like “15 to 20 flights to solo” and “another 20 to 30 to license.”  Experience has shown that this information was somewhat misleading and we have seen quite a few new members leave the club before getting a license or even before getting to solo.  There are undoubtedly many reasons for this but one is certainly that it takes considerably more time and effort (not to mention money) to become an accomplished glider pilot.  Soaring is a vocation of delayed gratification, even more so here in the Pacific Northwest with all the unpredictability of our weather.

A statistical evaluation of student progress at ES over the last few years gives some insight into the typical time and effort spent by students on their way to becoming established glider pilots.  “Typical” in this context means that unusually long and involved training periods (due to various extraneous factors like foreign travels etc.) are not included in the following statistics.  This is obviously work in progress and may change somewhat as more data become available but on an interim basis there are already some interesting results.  With additional data this analysis will become more representative but is not expected to change significantly.

So here is the current summary (as of May 2013) for typical student progression over several years:

The quoted numbers of flights refer to the information given on the old Evergreen web site and are considerably more optimistic than what our experience shows.  Any indication of expected student progress on our new ES web site should reflect the actual data.

In particular, the time and effort taken typically by our students from solo to license bear little semblance to the quoted values and probably contribute to the fading away of some of our solo students.  There does not seem to be an easy way around this in our club environment but at least we should be realistic about this and not raise false expectations.  Otherwise we do not only waste the enthusiasm, time and money of newly soloed pilots but also the considerable efforts by our instructors and other volunteers.

One alternative that has been suggested more than once and has actually been used, is to short circuit this time consuming process of getting a license by first getting sufficient solo time and experience in the club environment and then to spend a week or so at a flying school to get a license.  This may be more expensive in the short run but may also be worthwhile in terms of reducing frustration and to fully experience the joy of soaring.