http://www.blueskyhg.com/

Steve Wendt has sold his Honda 125 (http://ozreport.com/10.035#0) to a paraglider instructor in Canada and replaced it with a Honda Elite 250, a scooter that can get you off the ground in a hurray. This is the scooter tow that I used last Thursday when we first got here.

Steve has found that he now has a multi-step program that takes his students in easy increments from brand new students to truck towing pilots. The low and slow Honda 50 (http://ozreport.com/11.083#3) is the first scooter used to get the pilots their first experiences. Here the point is to keep pilot low to the ground, teaching them to launch and land and control the glider from side to side. This scooter is great because it really allows you to walk, trot and then run on your launch.

The low power scooters are great for student training because they allow for such fine throttle and power control at the low end. Scooters with more powerful engines may in fact work fine for this application if you can actually get fine control at the low end of the throttle settings. Some have tried to use little lever arms on the throttle, or increased the radius on the throttle handle by putting foam around it. I don't know if these work as well, but I doubt it.

I found a wide range of speeds at the very low end to be very useful for my purposes and I'm sure that new students and the scooter tow operator find this greater level of control at the low end to be quite useful.

The next step is the Honda Elite 250, which is used to get pilots high enough (200') to do a downwind leg, base leg, and final, over and over again. They have already learned how to launch and land, so that they've surrounded the approach with their first learned skills. The bigger engine can get the more experienced new pilot into the air quickly, but the student is very familiar with the launch sequence, so they can concentrate on learning the landing sequence.

The third step is the 400 cc quad (http://ozreport.com/10.116#0) that will get pilots to 400' or 500' using the same launch methods that they are most familiar with - scooter towing. They get to see what it looks like to get high without having to learn a new launch system. They get to practice all their other skills and do an approach for a landing. Again, repetition is the key to successful skill acquisition.

Finally, Steve teaches them to truck tow (platform tow, ATOL, payout winch towing). This is a new method of launching for them (they don't have to run down the grass runway now), and that's what's new that they have to learn at this step. But they are already familiar with what it is like to be high, so that's not that new to them when they get towed to 800' and above.

Steve has found that this four step method makes it easy to move the pilot up the skill ladder, using one step at a time.