ORIGINAL: JohnBuckner
The real danger is the implication that they make teaching oneself to fly easier which is quite the opposite. Every single one of them require extensive setup and fine tuning of the various gains which means more than just a few flights with even competant pilots forced to deal with a poor flying airplane. Now do you think this loner somewhere depending on this crutch is ever going to get this thing fine tuned before taking off by himself to teach himself, very unlikely and it is only going to hasten the demise of the airplane with the self teaching individual totally befuddled.
Even if you overcome this problem, there is a larger one involved when a person teaches themselves to fly with this device. I mentioned this earlier, but I'll bring it up again as it's very pertinent to this discussion. When somebody is learning to fly on their own they quickly discover that the easiest way to level the plane, or save it if it's in trouble, is to let go of the sticks and the device will level the plane out. Students learning how to fly with an instructor learn how to level the plane without any aid such as this. So when it comes time to move to their next plane they will have the skills needed to successfully fly that plane. However, the student learning with this device never develops these basic skills and when it's time to move to a next plane they don't have the necessary skills needed to successfully fly it. This leave them to either try and fly it and crash it, move the leveling device to the next plane, or to simply stay on their trainer.
While the marketing hype for this device makes it sounds like a great tool to help, it actually does far more harm in the training of a student than it ever helps.
I am thinking about installing one of these in a glider not because not to avoid crashing but to help keep it level when it is really up higher than I can see. When it is not much more than a spec it is hard to tell how level the wings are. If such a device will keep the wings level then I expect it could better thermal.
You won't need anything like this to keep a glider level. Most gliders are rudder only and the dihedral in the wing will keep the glider level. You won't have to do anything to level the wings at all.
Ken