Flight Instructor Revalidation Clinic

Date: February 19 & 20

Location:

Revivals Restaurant
4 South Ridge Rd (Rt 563)
Perkasie, PA 18944
215-258-3463

Time: 8:00 am – 6:00 pm

Cost: $150

Presenters:

Tom Knauff – FAA DE
Other subject matter experts

Registration:

Phil Klauder
phil.klauder@verizon.net

Question: Why should an airplane CFI attend a “glider” related Revalidation Clinic?

Answer:  You will learn a new slant on traditional Information from another highly informed Perspective.   For example:

Aeronautical Decision Making – What are the options to consider when faced with limited resources and it allcomes down to the fundamental of flight?

Off Field Landings – Glider pilots are experts at off- airport landings – learn more than that you have been taught about how to make good off field landing decisions and execute an uneventful non-airport landing. You will hear things you have never heard as an airplane CFI.

Teaching Landings – How do you teach students to get the pattern and landing right every time no possibility of a go-around or a pattern re-boot. Glider pilots do it for their entire carrier.

Collision Avoidance – Enhanced techniques when flying what  is practically a “stealth” aircraft – A composite glider doesn’t show up on radar and is very difficult to see. Learn how to enhance see-and-be-seen techniques to augment technology solutions.

New information * New perspective * New ideas

(You will have fun avoiding the same old re-hashed Information you have sat through for years at re-validation clinics)

Instructor’s Certificate Renewal – CFI-G/CFI/CFI-I

FIRC Instructor – Tom Knauff

And other highly qualified instructional experts

Tom Knauff – A noted author, glider pilot, flight instructor, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Designated Pilot Examiner, and a member of the U.S Soaring Hall of Fame. He was an early pioneer of ridge soaring soaring in the Appalachians in the 1960s, ultimately setting five world records flying gliders there. He was stunt pilot in the 1999 film The Tomas Crown Affair.

Mr. Knauff was the first glider pilot to fly 750 km and 1000 km triangle course flights in the United States, and was the first to fly 1000 km with a passenger. His 1,647 km (1,023 m) out-and- return flight in 1983 was the world’s longest glider flight at the time, stood as a world record for nearly 20 years, and is still a U.S national record. He has set more than 50 other U.S. National soaring records.

His glider flight training manuals, Glider Basics from the First Flight to Solo and Glider Basics from Solo to License are the most popular in the U.S., and he is one of the most respected glider flight instructors in the world. He is one of the few FAA designated pilot examiners who are authorized to issue initial flight instructor certificates.

Mr. Knauff currently lives near State College, Pennsylvania with his wife Doris Grove, another hall of fame glider pilot. They own and operate the Ridge Soaring Gliderport in Julian, Pennsylvania, which they founded in 1975.

Books by Tom Knauff & Doris Grove

  • Accident Prevention Manual for Glider Flight Instructors
  • Accident Prevention Manual for Glider Pilots, with Doris Grove
  • After Solo,
  • Cockpit Guide for Glider CFI’s
  • Glider Basics from First Flight to Solo
  • Glider Basics from Solo to license
  • Glider Emergency Procedures
  • Glider Flight Instructor Manual
  • Judgment Training Manual for Glider Pilots, with Doris Grove
  • Judgment training manual for glider flight
  • Off Field Landings
  • Ridge Soaring the Bold Eagle Ridge’
  • The Bronze Badge Book
  • Transition to Gliders : A Flight Training Handbook for Power Pilots

Tom Knauff Flight Achievements

Single Place glider Records

  • Out-and-return distance : 1,646.68 km, 25 April 1983
  • Distance over a triangular course: 1,362.68 km, 2 May 1986
  • Free distance using 3 turn points: 1,394.04 km, 1 June 1993

Two-place glider Records

  • Out-and-return distance: 829.7 km, 7 April 1979
  • Out-and-return distance: 1,000.88 km, 28 September 1981

Other Accomplishments

  • Over 50 U.S. national gliding records
  • Represented US in World/National gliding competitions
  • Kronfield Challenge Cup 1991 (First American)
  • Eaton Trophy (with Doris Grove) 2000
  • Du Pont trophy 1989
  • Stroukoff Trophy 19989
  • SSA Exceptional Achievement Award 1986
  • FAI 1000K Diploma #15 (Int #31) 1980