Many have gone through the various gliding clubs and built up flying hours towards CPL, including myself. One thing to remember is that the gliding club exists to serve the interests of the members. It does not exist to provide a means for free flying hours for wannabee professional pilots.
That said, any club would welcome a pilot who regularly attends the club and pitches in as a normal club member. This means turning up early in the morning, helping out to push and wash gliders, helping with launching, going on the occasional outlanding retrieve, cleaning the toilets, etc, etc.
Most clubs would require at least solo standard in a club 2 seat glider prior to doing towing. This is fair enough as it gives the tug pilot perspective on being on the other end of the rope. It also serves to prove that the club has a proper club member flying the tug who is not going to bugger off as soon as some hours have been clocked up.
The club will be puting resources of time and money into your training as a tug pilot which may take some hours of flying with the Tug Master or someone else who is CASA approved to sign you out for glider towing. People will resent this if you aren't going to hang around for a while.
I was Tug Master at a club some years ago and I received 1 or 2 approaches per week from PPLs wanting to fly the tug. I always said that club policy was to allow club members who were solo, had a PPL and tailwheel endorsement (10 hrs) to fly the tug. This disuaded most people, who it seemed to me just wanted to turn up at their own convenience and disappear when they felt like it. One
PPL even told me that I could pay him for his 'labours' of flying the tug at a nominal $10 per hour!
I know of several people who went to Benalla, got themselves solo in the IS28 and then lived in the clubhouse for 12 months flying and helping out most days. At the end of a year, these guys had ~ 500-600 hrs extra in their log book which gave them a decent leg up for a job out West or up North when they did finally get a CPL.
Good luck to it for those who are keen. The Gliding movment comprises a cohort of dedicated individuals who have a great deal to offer regarding airmanship, handling skills, aeronautical knowledge and commeraderie. No doubt some of the best flying I have ever done and hanging out with some top people. Gliding showed me that Sport Aviation is where Amature Aviation excells
