Is 45 minutes drive too long to the airfield?

[MrMeat]

I would like to take up gliding as I can learn for ~£500 and it's cheap to carry on with.

One problem.

There are two airfields that do gliding. Both are 45- 50 minutes away.

Would you say this is too long? That means if I want an hours flying, i'll be out for three hours. That would limit me to weekends only. Would you drive for 45 minutes?

[Fly-by-Wife]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but gliding ain't like that. You will be expected to assist with launching, retrieving and possibly winch driving later on - it takes a minimum of 2 other people besides the pilot (preferably 3 or 4) to get one glider airborne, so plan to spend a whole day at the club no matter how much or how little flying you personally do.

People who pitch up, rig their own glider, launch and then f**k off are not popular at most clubs, and get as much assistance as they give.

And 45 minutes is peanuts. I know people who drive more than a hundred miles, stay in the clubhouse / caravan for the weekend then drive home.

So yes, it's a weekend thing!

FBW

[avturboy]

At any gliding clubs I have ever been you don't just turn up for a lesson and then go home, you spend a full day there and spend most of your time as part of the ground crew until it's time for your flight, then you return to ground crew for the rest of the day.

Even if you attend a residential course you still spend time as ground crew when you're not flying.

[Pace]

With any passion do you measure in time ?
You have a beautiful girlfriend do you post asking whether 45 minutes is too long to drive to see her ?
Hope that answers your question

Pace

[BackPacker]

I just drove 45 minutes each way for one hour (take-off to landing) of aerobatics. Was it worth it? Definitely!

Furthermore, just like the previous posters said - if you're going gliding you're supposed to be there the whole day. The club where I glide is two hours away, and most of my time there have been midweeks. Drive there on Sunday, pitch my tent, spend five nights and five fulls days at the club (with all meals served in the clubhouse) and drive home Friday evening. Best vacation days I ever spent so far.

(The only time where things became absolutely out of proportion is when I had to drive to the club for two hours, sit one 20-minute exam, and drive back for another two hours. And repeat that for another exam one week later.)

[dubbleyew eight]

I've been driving 45 minutes or more each way for the last 18 years.

...of course in england it is different. drive for 46 minutes in any direction and you are in the sea. :=:=:=

[Pilot.Lyons]

I've been driving 45 minutes or more each way for the last 18 years.

"...of course in england it is different. drive for 46 minutes in any direction and you are in the sea. "

To drive 46 mins in uk you wont end up in the sea because there will be at least an hour wait in a traffic jam due to some numpty who cant drive in a straight facking line without crashing!

[Local Variation]

I can assure that 46 minutes from the centre of England, of which I am under 10 miles away from, will get you nowhere near the sea. More like 2 and a quarter hours.

45 minutes hardly seems a long drive to go flying.

[cockney steve]

wrt 45 minutes....all above posts are on the mark.

wrt "cheap flying"....If there's a GA -friendly airfield,or perhaps a farm-strip/ friendly landowner, you may consider a flexwing Microlight or a Self-Launching Motor Glider.

That way, you can just arrive, fly and depart.
You wouldn't get the demand on your time, helping others, the banter, the friendship, the hints, tips and help......but there you go!

[Ridger]

Take a trial flight to see how it grabs you. If it releases similar levels of dopamine that the rest of us experience, then you will gladly walk 100 miles on your knees for a 10% chance of a 10 minute circuit in between rain showers. And you'll be far too engrossed in chewing the aviation fat with newbies and sky gods alike to want to leave the airfield within an hour of landing anyway.

The time and budget conundrum applies equally to flying - the richer you are, the more able you are to rock up, fly and go. This is possible in gliding - you just need your own strip and >£100k of ASH-26E! For the rest, gliding is the ultimate 'all hands to w**k the elephant' exercise. When I learnt to glide I cycled an hour each way to the airfield, and averaged a 10 hour day for 3 winch launches. I like to think that commitment is reflected when I'm 150k from home, scratching in 1/2 a kt thermal to get home!

Time to spare, go by air is an ever appropriate adage I'm afraid, so if time is a factor then I would suggest you go the NPPL/LAPL route, although an hours flying generally involves an hour of prep and prob 30mins afterwards to fuel up, debrief if req'd, and pay your fees.

The easiest alternative is available on Wednesdays and Saturdays - 'tis only 6 numbers!

[Lone_Ranger]

1hr-1hr20in each way for me, has been for the last 4 years...............if 45 min each way is too much trouble, you don't want it enough to get past training anyway

[JDA2012]

Still very new to this myself, but I drove an average of 55 mins each way every day for about four weeks training, and I still drive that whenever I want to fly. There is a GA airport only 25 minutes away, but I appreciate the facilities and staff where I am, so it's not even a case of it being too far but consciously choosing to go further for the desired experience.

In my case I don't quite "get" gliding, but would like to give it a go if only to gain an appreciation of how things are for other air users (have visited ATC for similar reasons). Whether powered or not though, if the hobby and the location are right for you, I don't think the distance comes into it - I feel roughly the same about the people who apparently get their PPL and then decide there is nowhere they actually want to fly. It's about the journey - get in the car, get in the aircraft, go flying!

[Ridger]

Please do give it a go. The vast majority of my gliding cohorts are also PPL, CPL and ATPL holders, with quite a few ex fast jet jocks to boot, so the twain co-exist more often than might be expected. At the risk of courting controversy, I would say the average gliding club may contain slightly odd characters! Let's face it, the Wright Brothers didn't hang around long before bolting an engine on, so the decision to exclusively fly a machine sans motor some 110 years hence may seem rather odd. However, I suggest three good things about gliding: you'll get to use your feet. A lot. The adverse yaw in a glider is enormous, which although inherently undesirable, breeds a level of co-ordination which can ease the path to taildragger ticket. Secondly, sustained low level ridge flight or rattling around a 300km triangle with the assistance of mother nature holds a strangely magical quality, a bit like getting a tenners change from a fiver. Thirdly, a modern racing glider, although ruinously expensive, is quite simply the most beautiful expression of form and function you could imagine, and they are amazing to fly - an 18 metre Ventus 2 is getting on for a 50:1 glide ratio and will cheerfully cruise at 100kts between climbs on a stonking day without breaking a sweat.