Does this seem dumb to anyone else?

I have a friend who's finally stepping-up and getting formally educated this winter. She's enrolled in an AIARE Level 1 class and their field trips span both days of this weekend. I got a frantic text from her on Wed. asking if she could borrow my beacon this weekend for the trip. Knowing full well that she has a high-performing analog beacon that she knows how to use I inquired as to why she needed to borrow a beacon. The response: the instructors for the course are *requiring* the students to have a digital beacon with at least two antennae.

Does that seem like an absurd requirement to anyone else? I mean, you should learn with the beacon you intend to use when a life's on the line - not one you borrowed from a friend. Just like you should learn and practice with the same shovel and probe. When your friend(s) are buried, you don't want to have to think about how to use the rescue gear you have on you. You want it to be as close to muscle memory as possible (yes, the brain's a muscle, too, and you can train it as such).

I'm not sure how far to push this, but I'm very uncomfortable with this kind of education. I'm hesitant to publicly shame the organization running the course but I feel that they kind of deserve it for having such a ridiculous requirement. In addition, I don't see the value in doing back-to-back days in the field. Ideally, your trips are spread far enough apart that the snowpack is different between the two so you can compare and contrast between the days and the decisions made during each and obtain a richer knowledge before venturing out "on your own".

Thoughts? Suggestions for appropriate actions? Am I just crazy?

my two cents...i don't think its an absurd requirement.   Have her bring both transceivers along...maybe she can use both.   

Having helped out with a local club's backcountry ski class for many years, i've seen more than a few students show up with a borrowed, ancient F1, and never get the hang of how to properly search with it...they then borrow another student's Tracker and figure it out immediately.   Its been a few years since I helped out, but even back then we were down to maybe one or two volunteer instructors who felt comfortable teaching an analog beacon search.

My guess is your friend is the exception to what kind of student the class usually gets.  And who knows- since digital beacons have become rather commonplace these days, the provider of the class might not have instructors who even know how to use an old analog beacon confidently.

It would suck if a class provider tossed that 'digital only' requirement out there at the last minute, but as long as it was known from the get-go I don't see anything wrong with them telling people to only bring digital ones.   

I appreciate your not calling out the organization and I'm with Pete re: the likely reasons for their requirements. If I were you and really wanted to know why they have them, I'd email or call them and ask for their reasoning.

The truth of it is that analog beacons, no matter how good you are with them, are old technology that are used less and less frequently. The search style/pattern is different with an analog beacon, as is some of the feedback you're relying on, so having to teach to two different styles of searching may be outside their normal course curriculum.

Not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I can see several solid reasons why they might want to minimize the number of variables in a complex new skill that folks are trying to learn.

As an avalanche educator, there are a number reasons for the transceiver requirement.

1-As analog beacons age they risk frequency drift. The age of the transceiver might be a factor as digital transceivers have been around for over 10 years and we are now seeing triple antenna beacons with far greater accuracy being promoted so everyone can search faster with less practice.

2-Search techniques for analog beacons take alot of practice to become only moderately proficient. Many studies done on 3 different continents recommend triple antenna digital beacons with a flagging function to help with multiple victim search.

As for the field days, recency contributes greatly to retention so the longer you string out the course the harder it is to remember the previous lessons. It makes it easier to back link the current lesson with the one done yesterday rather than the week before.

I hope your friend feels she got full value out of her class.

It's true that the search method used with analog vs. digital is different -- so focusing on teaching one style would make some sense.   I wonder how clearly they indicated in their course offering the digital requirement.   Seems uncool to hide this detail until after payment has been recieved, but maybe your friend missed this detail.

From a purely self-preservationist point of view -- don't you want your friend to upgrade to a three antenna beacon?

I suppose it is also possible that the instructors don't have analog beacons or much experience with analog beacons -- Not all instructors are grizzled greybacks.

I hope she missed the requirement, which was communicated in advance.

Other than this - I know that the new beacons aren't cheap but I think it's a good investment for both her and her touring partners.

I myself have never used an analog beacon and don't feel too bad about it. If she's reasonably proficient with the analog unit, she should be able to pass the tests with it without any issue, right? Or is on the old frequency? That may be a problem...

Cheers
Ivo