A newbie instructor wonders where the real beginner pilot manual
is.

Jay Scovill ()
writes:

I’ve been told one in five or more who begin training in hang
gliding actually finish and become pilots. So to reach the gain of 1000 new
pilots per year if we currently are rating 200 plus per year we have lost over
800 who potentially could have become pilots.



Once again my experience in risky sports is as follows: I am a H3 pilot, a PADI
SCUBA instructor and a National Motorcycle Safety Foundation rated beginning
motorcycle instructor (I can certify a rider so they can get a motorcycle
driver’s license). There are some parallels in these sports I can see: potential
motorcyclists, SCUBA divers and hang glider pilots come to the first class
nervous. They may be wondering: “What am I getting myself into?” and They are
excited, excited about doing something that does have some risk. They are
frightened about those risks. As a motorcycle instructor my first job is to set
riders at ease in every way that I can.



The training book used in forty nine states is called the Rider Handbook. It is
fifty pages from cover to cover. A motorcycle has ten controls that are
individually coordinated by the operator’s hands and feet while they balance it
and it can weigh over 900 pounds. They average over 600.



To get a driver's license (it’s the same course in every state except Oregon) a
rider must spend five hours in class, watch eleven videos, complete seventeen
motorcycle exercises and then pass a test based on the Rider Hand Book and a
driving skill evaluation. Are they any good when they get done with the course?
They have been given the basics. With careful step by step practice in more and
more complex situations they can become excellent riders.



Just looking through Pagen’s Hang Gliding Beginner to Intermediate pilot
training manual (now that USHPA has figured out which one to use) I am looking
at a 360 page manual for a vehicle with one control. The technical issues
discussed in the first 100 pages are unnecessarily daunting. It is a wonderful
book full of information, but “the rule” used in SCUBA (which uses an
interactive DVD for the class room. No book at all!) and motorcycling is KISS.
My USHGA instructor manual is only 125 pages! What are we doing to these
beginning students with this thick book?



We can learn something from these much more successful extreme sports. Does a
beginning H1 “need to know” all the data contained in the thirty pages spent on
air movement? Or would a word like “turbulence” describe troublesome air enough
to get them started flying in calm air?



They are freaked out trying to keep the wings level and the nose angle correct,
don’t overload them! Get them some positive growth flying with the scooter,
until they can climb to a hundred feet and land in calm air. Then as we begin to
let them experience some “turbulence” we let them begin to study the air.



As they fly gaining some H2 skills: turbulence, thermals, ridge lift become
“fun” to study. Studying complex air patterns that early on is just one example
of too much (frightening sounding) information too soon. My opinion: We are
scaring them off.



Two words of advice about training in this sport if you want growth: “baby
steps”.



My experience has shown me that lots of people in hang gliding don't want to
hear about other extreme sports so this perspective may not be interesting to
you or your readers. I see parallels though and these other sports have
conquered their demons to move forward and become true industries. I think that
learning how to make the sport interesting to more people is going to mean that
we will all have to look at models that have overcome an unpopularity that came
from fear.



Hang gliding is safer than motorcycling, period. With the advent of the scooter
you can do it anywhere and do it more cheaply than you can ride a modern
motorcycle. People are fascinated by this sport. Someone is going to capitalize
on these facts someday. But they are going to have to make it as fun to learn
and as simple as motorcycling.