Originally Posted by
Jazzer83
Rich34glider,
What made you switch from power to gliding? How many hours do you fly in a year?
With power flying once qualified I could maybe afford £2-2.5k a year which would only get me 20hrs max.
I figure that for the same price I could get at least double that in gliding hours.
I was flying powered for career purposes (military & then CPL which I didn't finish) but I'd started in gliders at 16 because it was cheap and when I eventually chucked in the flying-as-a-career idea & I went back to gliding because it was a lot more fun than most of the powered flying I'd been doing, and it was a lot cheaper - I had about 100 hours of gliding at this stage so not much instruction required.
I currently fly about 50 hrs a year - most of that instructing (which I don't pay for) and the rest in my own glider (also cheap) so I probably spend about 1/2 what you're budgeting - membership fees, glider parts (we do our own maintenance) and a few aerotows over summer. We don't insure our glider (syndicate of 2) as it's not worth it.
I guess it depends why you want to fly, but gliding is very challenging, very fun & very rewarding. The racing & competition side of things is something you won't really get as a PPL. I've also flown higher in a glider than anything powered (that I'm flying anyway!) - 22,000 feet in wave. I've flown cross-country in thermals for over 500 km many times too. Give it a go & see what you think!