It is a good thing that over the years the sport has moved toward
better resourced and structured post-solo coaching.
The regrettable aspects are that -
- on the one hand the sport's traditions of making do and relying on
individuals to stump up resources for the benefit of the sport as a
whole has continued
- meanwhile on the other hand the society wide attitudes, which might
be termed 'victim mentality', have pervaded participant attitudes (no
care/no responsibility).
I am one of the people who has become concerned about providing
resources (myself, skills and knowledge, sailplane and other bits and
bobs) and then find the coachee turns up on the flightline after I have
done the fettle, DI, tow-out, flight prep; ready to 'do the flight'.
My view is that all those precursors are where the real learning
occurs. Since we know that pilot comprehension and decisionmaking goes
to mush once we are in the air.
As the sport gets smaller, it relies ever more on the old hands where
the corporate knowledge resides. Making that section of the sport
wonder about the value of what they offer, the ineffectual nature of
hand-on of that knowledge, let alone being left hung out to dry in
terms of carrying the costs as well; is the rapid path toward those
resources not being available.
While there seems to be good things happening at the introduction to
cross country flight/early contest scene, and at the elite training
pinnacle; these concerns affect the transition of aspirants between
those 2 states at either end of the performance spectrum.
(The individuals concerned know who I am talking about without me
violating the ethics of a public discussion list; don't you)
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