PPL the glider route.

[emdiesse]

Hello,

I have just discovered that I have probably been fairly stupid. My university has a gliding club, which i dismissed in the first year for fears of it being very expensive. Now I have began to start thinking why have I not persued my childhood ambition of becoming a pilot I have been carrying out alot of research. I remembered the gliding club and I have just discovered the prices are insanely cheap, if I have read them correctly:

Gliding club membership per year (must hold a Unisport card) £10.00
Winch launch (first one each week is free) £7.50
Soaring fees (we envisage that all soaring fees will be paid by the union, only people flying well above the average will be charged - contact the committee if you would like further details of how this works) £0.25/min
Aerotow to 2000' (you may have a £7.50 discount on this rather than the free winch launch - making it £18.50) £26.00
Additional 500' on aerotow £2.70
Petrol money for trips (depending on number of people on trip) £2 to £5
Falke motor glider time (the £7.50 may be used towards this) £1.05/min
Premium membership (gives you half price winch launches for the year - this means you will get two free flights per week) £100.00

Before becoming a member of Lasham Gliding Society (the union pays for this) you must read the mandatory safety sections (in red) of the Lasham manual .

now to me that sounds like I could pay a tenner a year and work my way up to a license from the free winches each week?

Then I could take a conversion course to get a PPL?

(obviously I am not including ground study and exam fees, but practical flight time. Also, does gliding flight hours count in any way towards PPL, CPL and ATPL?)

Have I understood this correctly?

Thank you

[Agaricus bisporus]

There is no such thing as a free lunch...



Also, does (sic) gliding flight hours count in any way towards PPL, CPL and ATPL?)


Suggest you tale a look at the CAA's website and examine the requirements that your "extensive research" has evidently failed to pick up - requirements straight from the horse's mouth, the first place any researcher would look...Or ask at the gliding club if that is too much like "research".



Good luck at Uni.

[BEagle]

You really think that you'll be welcome if you turn up every week to fly just one free launch?

Probably on about the 3rd occasion you amble along for your freeloading trip there'll be a simulated cable break at 10 ft and that'll be your lot.

I have just discovered that I have probably been fairly stupid.

So have we....

[emdiesse]

Very true. I thought it sounds a bit too good to be true, however I haven't been able to get hold of the club yet as the uni email is down.

I only managed to find information about a 10 hour conversion course to NPPL.

BEagle, You post was of no help at all to me and the sarcy comment at the end was very welcoming. All the same, I thank you for wasting your time.

Cheers agaricus Bisporus, I guess I should apologise for perhaps my over eagerness to post here as I clearly exaggerated on my behalf on the amount of research I have completed. I have looked for a total of 7 hours at the subject but perhaps in all the wrong places.

[Whirlygig]

Google LASORS 2008, download, and enjoy!!!

Cheers

Whirls

[emdiesse]

Wow, thanks Whirlygig. That looks just like what I needed. Whenever I look at the CAA publications section or the JAA publications section I just see a mass of documents with titles that I fail to recognise as essential reading.

I would have gone ahead not realising for days what LASORS 2008 actually stands for.

Cheers

[Farrell]

Sounds pricey!

7.50 per winch off.
You'll be doing about ten shots off if there's no thermal activity.
When you're with your instructor, you'll be doing takeoffs and landings until the cows come home to get it right.
Bump boink bing bang bong all the way down the field.
0.25p per minute for soaring???? - that's 15 quid an hour on top.

Gliding will make you a better pilot though - that's a fact! :E

[MIKECR]

emdiesse,

If your ultimate goal is to get a PPL then CPL off the gliding route, then forget it, its a totally false ecenomy. You would need to get minimum 'Silver C' badge in gliding, plus minimum 10 hours PPL instruction, which would allow you to convert to a NPPL. You would then have to do a further 10 hours PPL instruction to upgrade to a full JAA PPL.

The cost of obtaining a full silver C badge in gliding will probably cost you more then a 3 week FT PPL course in Florida...........you do the maths!

but p.s. Do go along and get some flying done. Gliding is great fun and will make you a far better pilot in the long run. Do muck in though, thats what gliding clubs are all about. Everyone helps out as best they can. Any freeloaders who pitch up late in the day, fly, and then bugger off home will not be welcome. If your not there first thing to get everything out, then make sure your there last thing at night to help clean up ad pack the hangar

[emdiesse]

Farrell, Ok, now it's been put into perspective a bit more I can see how it may not be a very suitable route. The per minute soaring cost is reimbursed by the student union apparently, so this isn't too bad. However the repeted winches to catch the thermals does sound very pricey! I never thought of that.

MIKECR, I am pleased you have mentioned that it is still a good thing to do, I am very much still interested in joining the gliding club this year and to perhaps postpone trying to obtain my PPL til after university and in a full time job to help fund it. By postponing my PPL til after university this would potentially give me 2 years extra time to prepare, by gliding during these two years I would be more confident in an aeroplane when it comes to training and taking the PPL. Also during these two years I would gain a much better understanding of Air Law, Communications, etc. Essentially (as far as I can see) a good balance of gliding and then PPL training could help minimise the costs.

I can definately see how gliding experience would make me a better pilot when it comes down to it because I would have a far better understanding of thermals and wind which I feel would not gain from a plane with an engine.

Gliders also look so majestic in the sky!

[sollas]

As far as I was aware, 10% of your P1 gliding time can be counted towards your ppl upto a maximum of 10 hours.

Gliding is fab though, you should give it a go and see if you enjoy it. Teaches you good handling skills amongst other things.

[oversteer]

You are getting a very good saving on their membership fee, where I am the cost is about £500 for a year.

The flying is not so cheap, similar prices to where I am (not far from Lasham). If you factor on 2 or 3 aerotow flights per half day, that's £50 spent very quickly.

A free winch launch is nice but there's no way you'd ever learn in your lifetime with one flight per week. Treat it as a discount.

You're in a good position to learn if you have the cash, you can probably do mornings/afternoons during the week when you don't have lectures and it will be a lot quieter than turning up at weekends.

As said above, if you can't do a full day, make sure you're there from "hangar doors open" till lunch, or lunch till pack up. It's a club, and everyone pitches in.

[lc_aerobatics]

I went this route and as it's stated above you can have credit of 10% of your total flying time but no more than 10 hours towards PPL (Getting PPL at 35h) and up to 30 hours for CPL. :ok:

[emdiesse]

Cheers. I can see it being of a great benefit to me to begin this route and a fun way of starting. It would definately be a good thing to be part of a club (and yes, I would help out :ok:).