Should mention Shenington Gliding Club!
 

There are a raft of gliding clubs in the midlands. Windrushers (Bicester) is one, we are the other one! We both have a seven day a week operation, with professional staff during the week and club members running the show at weekends.

We do, however have a ridge! and we are definitely on the top of a hill, and we have hard runways as well as grass, and winch as well as airtow, and we have a bar, and a lot of fun, and do a lot of training, from beginners to improvers, and cross country. Our airspace is wide open, our weather is the best, beware of the northwest, it does rain a lot there, you know!

By all means, check us out! You would be very welcome.

Can I recommend The Gliding Centre at Husbands Bosworth? Large airfield (possibly the longest unlicensed grass runway in UK), 7 day operation, professionally run courses during the season. Good club fleet of K21, Puchacz and Duo Discus 2 seat gliders for training plus a modern Rotax Falke motorglider. There are also a lot of privately owned and operated powered aircraft based on site so plenty of interest for a PPL pilot! I'm sure you'll appreciate being aerotowed to 4000ft behind a DHC-1 Chipmunk and then watching it dive away once you have released from tow (the club has 3 for tugs). Finally, the club is easily accessed from the M1/M6 motorways and has on site accommodation in private rooms and on-site catering.

HusBos has a lot to recommend it - unfortunately it's the other side of Birmingham and Manchester to Lancashire (as is Bicester and Lasham), and in my experience those bits of the motorway network can be stuffed with traffic and traffic jams even at weekends. The Birmingham Toll Road is a great help (at least at the times I've used it) but adds £5 each way to his travelling costs.

Personally I feel that the OP is best to find a friendly club that's easy for him to get to and from at the weekend - he wants to glide, not drive! But if he wants a 5-day course then a lot more places are worth considering. I've met a few folks from Bowland Forest and they seem great fun. I've not flown there or visited but it seems to me the place for him to start as it's the nearest. That would be my tactic - start with the nearest that offers what he (thinks he) wants and work away from home if they don't suit for one reason or another. Or, pick a club with great facilities, and do a 5-day course. The one fly in the ointment with that is that if the weather is good that's great, but if it's poor then it can be very frustrating and a waste of hard-won holidays.

Thanks
 

Thanks all, excellent advice.

Welcome to the wonderful world of gliding. :)

Let us know what you decide to do and how you get on.

SLMG
 

What about NPPL/PPL to SLMG?
How long would that take,roughly?
Lister:)

Fair enough, cat 5
but scary? No, not really. take a look at Insch, or Talgarth, Florac, or maybe somewhere in the Alps. Lasham is a real pussycat.

An hour, maybe two.

Have a look at Section 5 of the SLMG syllabus.