The realities of learning to glide
Hi Simp123
It's very many years since I was a member of London Gliding Club at Dunstable Downs, but there are a few things that will not have changed; in particular, the site itself. Dunstable is an exceedingly complex site with three runways and therefore six directions of take-off and landing, each of which has its safety issues, notably the proximity of the ridge immediately along one side of the field, which complicates things.
When I was there, you needed a separate instructor check-out for each direction of take-off/landing. This meant that you might be flying solo on a direction you are checked out on only for the wind to change to one that you are not checked out on, so you are back with an instructor. And you only have to have gone a few weeks without using that direction of take-off/landing for your check-out to expire and have to be renewed with more than one instructor check flight.
So if you do take up gliding, my advice would be to start at some other club located at a flat site and only transfer to Dunstable when your gliding has reached a high standard; (i.e. 'C' Certificate or above and when you are ready to buy into a group). When I was at Dunstable there were ab-initio people there who had taken three YEARS just to go solo!
My advice would be to take a summer, one-week, holiday gliding course at a flat, uncomplicated gliding site. Read a book on gliding theory before you go as in my experience theory is not taught on the courses. A course would be an excellent way to gain your first basic flying skills.
Finally, unlike powered flying, (where you can turn up have your lesson and then go home,) in gliding you have to spend a lot of time on the ground man-handling gliders and cables, helping to get other people airborne. You will probably have to get there in the early morning to get your name high on the flying list and help get the gliders out to the launch point. You will then spend perhaps a couple of hours manhandling gliders and cables before it is your turn to fly, and then after flying you will be expected to stay on and help everybody else fly. So expect to be there all day.
And don't think gliding is cheap. It isn't. Those small fees and costs soon build up.
Here's something else about gliding that I can't imagine will have changed much since I was gliding. On a gliding site at the start of every day the instructors will open a fresh 'flying list' on which people who wish to fly that day will put their names down. People fly in strict order of their names appearing on that list. As people have their flights their names are crossed off the list. So the higher your name is on that list, the earlier you get to fly
When I was at Dunstable, it was common for that flying list to be thirty or more names long by 9 a.m. So if you get there in the mid-morning, you can still put your name down, but there will still be about twenty odd names above yours. It was quite common for the people at the bottom of the list to work hard all day but not to fly at all that day, (especially if the weather changed during the day,) this after putting in a hard day's work heaving gliders and cables on the ground.
Some clubs, (notably Dunstable,) used to have botheys. These were effectively dormitories where you could stay overnight and eat breakfast the following morning in the club canteen. So you could arrive the night before, sleep in the bothey, breakfast early, and then crawl out in time for the commencement of activities the following morning. It might be worth asking if this service is available.
In regard to how to get started, I would say do a trial flight. If you like it, do a week's course.
Good luck!
BP.