Anyone into Gliding?

pclancy

Hey just wondering does anyone here do any gliding at all? As I failed my class 2 medical and dont have much money right now for PPL flying I was thinking about going for gliding instead. A local club here near Wellington does lessons for $80 and hour (circa 50 euros ) which seems really cheap and good fun.

Mr Benevolent

Learning to glide is much different to learning to fly powered aircraft, especially in terms of the methods of training. Firstly, gliding is a social sport, most people don't just turn up, fly and go home again. They'll help shift gliders, clean them and generally help out for a good couple of hours. Secondly, flying time isn't really based on hours, it's based on winch and tug launches, generally the higher altitude you're launched to the higher the charge. Getting a solid hour in the air is unlikely during training. Gliding is great fun and a lot cheaper than powered flying but is a fair bit more unpredictable weatherwise unless you a local ridgesoaring site or something.

Best thing to do it give them a call, they'll run through the situation. Sorry to hear about failing your medical, have you asked if a specialist might be able to give another opinion?

nag

or is corrective surgery an option?

Run_to_da_hills

Took a joy flight in a glider in Australia, great experiemce.

Can anyone remember the old 50 & 60ies V8 American cars that were used by the Baldonel Gliding club in the 70ies.

Ald

Did a bit of gliding myself and am now about to complete my PPL. I got solo in my 7th hour and I attribute that to my limited gliding experience! The basics are the same in gliders. Actually, I found that you learn more about the actual flying from gliders. You've got to plan more to set up your circuits correctly. How to deal with being too high/low, rope failures, landing out and using lift. They also teach spin recovery which is not included on the PPL course which I think is a shame. You're more dependant on lift so you're looking out not just to see that you're VFR but also that you might stay up longer than 30 mins.

All in all, it's great fun. You learn plenty in terms of flying and there's plenty of challenges to keep you interested. Go for it!

pclancy

Yeah i'm going to drop down next weekend for a flight weather permitting. They use a winch launch which looks great fun!

jmayo

pclancy wrote: »

Hey just wondering does anyone here do any gliding at all? As I failed my class 2 medical and dont have much money right now for PPL flying I was thinking about going for gliding instead. A local club here near Wellington does lessons for $80 and hour (circa 50 euros ) which seems really cheap and good fun.

Here if you get a chance head down to Omarama in the South Island.
That was the base from which Steve Fossett was trying his gliding altitude record.

As someone else mentioned gliding is usually more social than private flying, particularly if it is a club rather than commerical organisation.
If a club you turn up for the day, you help unpack hangers, sometimes rig gliders, put your name on the list and wait your turn.
Then you can even wait around for packing.

In this part of the world that could be for a 15 minute flight, even shorter if you have a cable break simmulation.
Gliding does teach very valuable skills such as recoveries from spins and stalls, good sidesliping together with good height and speed judgement when flying with no instruments.

Remember you only get one chance, there are no go arounds

pclancy

Well for my birthday my lady put some money into my aeroclub account so it will be another trip in a tomahawk before i get over to the gliding club. Shame because I probaly would have got 2-3 times more flying time gliding then flying powered aircraft but hey i'm not complaining!

squiggledash

Ald wrote: »

Did a bit of gliding myself and am now about to complete my PPL. I got solo in my 7th hour and I attribute that to my limited gliding experience! The basics are the same in gliders. Actually, I found that you learn more about the actual flying from gliders. You've got to plan more to set up your circuits correctly. How to deal with being too high/low, rope failures, landing out and using lift. They also teach spin recovery which is not included on the PPL course which I think is a shame. You're more dependant on lift so you're looking out not just to see that you're VFR but also that you might stay up longer than 30 mins.

All in all, it's great fun. You learn plenty in terms of flying and there's plenty of challenges to keep you interested. Go for it!

Hey. How many hours usually before you can go solo and then get your PPL? Could you do it in a summer?

Bummer1234

squiggledash wrote: »

Hey. How many hours usually before you can go solo and then get your PPL? Could you do it in a summer?

You might be waiting awhile for a response from Ald, He hasn't been active in 3 years!