Basic Instructor (Sailplanes)

Completion of the Basic Instructor (Sailplanes) (BI(S)) training course qualifies a student pilot for the BI(S) assessment of competence and subsequent issue of an BI(S) certificate.

Helpful SFCL reference

SFCL.310

The student instructor

A student BI(S) must hold an SPL and on completion of training be at least 16 years of age.

The instructor

The person carrying out the training must be an FI(S) with 315(a)(7) or (a)(8) privileges.

The aircraft

The aircraft used must hold either a valid ARC or NARC and be assessed by the club as suitable for the training. Clubs or instructors can contact the BGA for advice.

The course programme

The BGA has developed an SFCL compliant course programme for use by BGA clubs only. These course programmes may only be used or reproduced or copied with the written permission of the BGA Ltd.  If any issues or errors are discovered when using the course programmes, please do highlight via the BGA office.

The BI(S) course programme is available here.

Training records

Both the student BI(S) and the instructor should sign for completed training as the training is progressed. These training records need to be stored in a manner that restricts access to those people who are authorised to access them. The BGA training organisation requires clubs to hold these records rather than student pilot holding the records and to sensibly restrict access to those involved in the instruction. If a student pilot wants a record of their training as they progress, they can of course take a picture or other copy of their training record. The training records can be electronic or paper.

If a club member moves to another BGA club to complete some SFCL training started at their own club, the relevant CFIs should arrange transfer of a copy of the training records between them. In that case, it is recommended that the club that started the SFCL training keeps the original copy of the record of training they completed.

Completion

An assessment of competence must be arranged with a Flight Examiner (Sailplanes) who holds BI(S) or FI(S) examining privileges (SFCL.415(c)).

On successful completion of the assessment, a BI(S) application form must be submitted to the BGA for subsequent licensing action by the CAA (SFCL.015 refers).