Luke
As others have said ‘The Gliding Centre’ is the place for you, one of the larger clubs in the UK and does have professional staff though mostly volunteer based to keep the costs down, it’s a 7 day a week operation for most of the year and the airfield is exclusively for them.
Tugs are still very much in demand, quite a few airfields cannot support winch launching, we are seeing a move from older towplanes to microlight tugs but that is a slow process, quite often jobs are advertised worldwide for towplane pilots at large clubs but glider pilots expect high quality tows so the jobs nearly always go to people with at least a dozen or so hours gliding over someone with a tad more power experience.
As for how it’s charged, you are charged for the method of launch and then your airtime. Many clubs, and I believe The Gliding Centre is included, charge reduced rates for people under 21. An example cost therefore would be £7 for a winch launch which’d get you to 1000-1500ft (Primary method for training) and then 35p a minute airtime. An hours flying therefore would be just £27 in that case! Going up behind the towplane gives you more height and more chance of catching a thermal but fuel isn’t cheap so it’s £27 for a tow to 2000ft. Obviously if you go higher you’ll pay more, release lower less. Remember also that as a club you pay a membership fee of up to £200 per year. But that’s cheap compared to golf! And if you’re lucky you’ll apply and get a scholarship to do most of the training for free anyway!
Try it out, if it isn’t your cup of tea at least you can say you’ve seen another side to aviation, be aware though that like the power world, Gliding Clubs always charge a lot more for trial lessons as it’s a big income earner so don’t judge gliding by the price of the trial lesson, but you will get some temporary membership alongside it to try more Gliding out before deciding to commit. PM me if you get stuck.
Planesandthings
P.S I wrote an article which you may be interested in about Gliding for beginners.
Gliding, the cheapest and most fun way to fly. | Get Into Flying