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.
Last edited by Ridger; 14th Jul 2013 at 22:22.