LONDON GLIDING CLUB

[Flyaways]

Hi guys,

My desire to fly has flared up again this time sparked by an article about gliding (on the Daily Mail website!).

I am looking at London Gliding Club... but can any explain how it works? I am aware that 'clubs' are very much that- you do jobs around the airfield and wait your turn to fly. However is LGC like that? It looks like I can buy a 5 day course and be 'almost' solo after that. Unfortunately that's about as detailed as the website gets...

My questions:

1) If I go on this course, how is it structured? Do I go there and have to spend ages waiting for 'my turn to fly' or is it like learn some stuff, go for a flight, review flight or learn some more, go for another fly??

2) Obviously I won't be a qualified glider pilot after this course, so what kind of thing do I do after it? How much does it cost for me to take more lessons with an instructor?

3) (General question) How much do you reckon it costs to get from zero to qualified?

I'm sure I'll think of more questions but I think that's good enough to get me going. Gotta say this aerobatic flying is making me excited....

Any other advice is welcomed!

[Piper.Classique]

Good questions. I think you should ask the club. Last time I was there they were friendly, but that was a while back.

[mary meagher]

London Gliding Club (we call it Dunstable!) has fine staff and good equipment, and years of experience. They have to be careful of airspace, being tucked under Luton approach, but I know you would enjoy flying there and can make best progress by going on a 5 day course. Many people who can only spare weekends fly once or twice every 7 days, and that's like the frog in the well, takes ages to progress because you keep backsliding.

At Shenington near Banbury, weekday courses are run with a professional instructor and winch driver. Usually 2 or 3 people would be booked on a course, and share the donkey work of pushing the gliders around, keeping the log, and helping in other ways. Without a doubt, at Dunstable they do the same.

You will be surprised by what is possible flying gliders; staying local at first the weather is not a problem, and Dunstable has an excellent ridge for soaring if the wind is westerly.

If you do go to Dunstable, tell them Mary sent you!

[cats_five]

We have similar courses where I fly. There are 3 or 4 on a course with an instructor and a glider. They not only fly when it's their turn, they run the launch point, retrieve gliders, and help get them out in the morning and put them away after flying. If it's no-fly weather then they get talks and fly the simulator.

How much it costs to get to Bronze plus XC endorsement depends on so many things - age, aptitude, application and so on and also where you fly as clubs don't all charge the same. The LGC website has to be vague as different people achieve different things in a week's course.

PS as we approach EASA-land getting a licence will only get harder...

[rusty sparrow]

Clubs have different personalities - I learned at Southdown Gliding Club and also flew at Ringmer - both friendly clubs. I returned to gliding about six years ago but found Dunstable/LGC rather cliquey and unfriendly.

Shop around before making a decision

[FullWings]

1) If I go on this course, how is it structured? Do I go there and have to spend ages waiting for 'my turn to fly' or is it like learn some stuff, go for a flight, review flight or learn some more, go for another fly??

Intensive courses tend to be just that: intensive! On the first day, I’d expect you to be launched by being pulled up by a powered aeroplane (aerotow) and taken up to a reasonable altitude to show you the effects of the controls and give you some initial “stick time”. After that, it’s generally winch launching to practice circuits, coordination and what to do if the launch fails at any point.

I’m sure if the wind is blowing on the ridge or if there is thermal activity, your instructor will be very keen to get you soaring as soon as possible.

In terms of the amount of launches/flying you’ll get, it’s mostly weather dependent but for training, if it’s dry, there's less than 30kts of wind on the airfield and the cloud base is over 600ft above the ground, you’ll probably fly. A 9-5 day out on the field with a short break for lunch is normally enough for most people. Traditionally, instructing has been bunched into sets of three flights, then a break and so on but your instructor will modify this to fit in with your learning requirements.

2) Obviously I won't be a qualified glider pilot after this course, so what kind of thing do I do after it? How much does it cost for me to take more lessons with an instructor?

If you enjoy the experience and want to take it further, it’s a good idea to continue with intensive training as soon as possible after a course. Free time and money notwithstanding, another week’s course should get you close, if not at the point of going solo, which is just the beginning. Many clubs offer half-day, one-day, weekend and other permutations of courses to suit. At LGC you can book sessions online and they also do evening instruction during the lighter months so you can have a couple of hours after work if you live/work within a reasonable distance. Clubs also normally give good discounts to people joining the club off a course.

In UK gliding, instruction is free, you pay for the launch (£4-£10 for winch, £25-£40 aerotow to 2,000ft) plus “air time” if this is charged, e.g. £0.20-£0.70 per minute. The bigger clubs sometimes offer a “fixed price to solo” tariff, including unlimited winch launching and glider use: this varies a lot depending on the equipment the club has but is generally in the order of £1,000-£1,500.

3) (General question) How much do you reckon it costs to get from zero to qualified?

It depends almost entirely on aptitude/confidence and the period of time over which you undertake the training. To get to SPL or LAPL(S) level, I’d say a couple of grand but there is a huge variation depending on the level of service you are happy with and how the learning experience works for you. There is an average but the standard deviation is large!

Any other advice is welcomed!

I’d say that if you’re dead set on learning to fly, you’ve already made a good decision by looking at intensive courses: by far the best way to kick start your glider flying, IMHO.

If you’re interested but not quite sure how you’d feel in the air and want to check it out before committing, one-off instructional flights are available at most clubs but it would be sensible to do it at the club you think you might be doing further training at. Tell the instructor that you’re seriously thinking of taking up the sport and doing an intensive course and you’ll get your first lesson!

[pulse1]

Things have probably changed since I learned at Dunstable in the mid 60's. I devoted nearly every Saturday and Sunday to gliding, started in November and went solo in March. I had previously done my A & B certificate with the ATC 10 years before that.

Actually, doing it during the Winter was great fun as the only people on the course were crazy, you had to be. To stand a reasonable chance of flying your 3 flights, you had to get there before 0645 hrs. At that time, 10 minutes made the difference between being in the first 5 or so and being 10th or more and maybe not flying if the weather changed. I actually went solo before 0800 and then enjoyed one of the best breakfasts ever. The practical jokes we played on new arrivals were great fun. I cannot remember one person not joining in the hard work and the fun.

Once the warmer weather arrived the team spirit eventually broke down as the fair weather students joined in. Luckily, having gone solo, I was a bit less dependent on them.

[Flyaways]

Thanks everyone. I work full time so getting more than say 2 weeks off in a row could be difficult. Plus I looked at the website and the price seems to almost double from if you wanted to learn in March to if you wanted to learn in July!!

Is London Gliding Club the type of club where you'd have to spend all day at in order to get any kind of flight?

[FullWings]

Is London Gliding Club the type of club where you'd have to spend all day at in order to get any kind of flight?

I fly at LGC, so would say “no”. We cater for a fairly broad church, so you *can* spend all day there involved in the operation if you want to, but it’s not compulsory. To be fair, most of the big clubs have gone this way as it’s not the 1960’s any more.

If you want to fly at one of the busier sites, it will be more expensive, simply because they have higher overheads due to having to employ professional staff to run a 365 day a year operation, plus keeping a fleet of training/solo aircraft in good flying nick adds significantly to the financial burden. If you want minimum expenditure, somewhere out in the sticks can provide super value but only if you have lots of time to spare and are prepared to be disappointed when you turn up and the winch driver / instructor / tug pilot / glider doesn’t. Even at the big clubs, a lot of services are provided by keen people giving of their time and expertise for nothing.

[davydine]

Holiday courses

Are you specifically wanting to fly at Dunstable or could you fly at a different location.

A year or so ago I was looking around at the different holiday courses on offer from the various gliding clubs as a way to get back in to gliding after a 10 year lay off. There was a considerable variation in what different clubs offered in terms of the amount of flying and the ratio of pupils per glider/instructor

Some also offer a guarantee that if you don't achieve a set amount of flying you will get a pro rata refund.

London Gliding club have an excellent reputation and will do a very good job of training you, but definitely worth having a shop around as it may be possible to get more for your money

David