Glider license hours?

[GremlinX]

How many hours does it take the average pilot to get his gider license? This is pending you never got your powered license... This maybe a cheaper way into flight for me..thanks.

[DA2000]

It's been a while, but most likely about 50 flights.

Hours are hard to judge, because you get varying amounts of lift, and a lot of 2 minute flights doing rope breaks and such.

Definitely cheaper, though.

[pitviper51]

back when i was studying for it, it was 10 solo hours then a check ride,, withthe insturctor flights as many as needed to get you to solo.. things may have changed,, well worth getting into, you get to fly the most aerodynamic stuff built.. no its not an f22 haha, the pure joy of hearing the wind rush by and pure simple flying. go for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mike

[GremlinX]

Honestly, I was/am getting burned out pretty good. Which is sad... This is a hobby that I will always be into, but I need to back off. I spent about $15000 last year and I don't crash much. 2 Da 50's, 1 DA 100, the planes to go with it, fully rigged and ready... My Godfrey with the 100 is my main focus and I hope to put the maiden on it. I just set it aside for a bit because of the summer schedule and the wife and I boat a fair amount. It's just sad to know how much that I spent last year with pretty much nothing to show for it besides a couple of toy airplanes... . I could have bought my certificate and put a down payment on a 177 Cardinal by now! 3 Years of giant scale..... I could own a Cub or something that will appreciate. I am NOT getting out of this hobby, but I need to get down to one plane and settle down. Thanks guys.

[pitviper51]

i hear ya there.. at 15000 you could make it to IFR lics maybe,, depends on the rentals prices and gas.. do the glider thing you wont regret it, then you can always do motor gliders i did a cross country ( over the alps) YEAAAAA was great and very lil work to much fun to be had with gliders
mike

[madmax]

Where's Toro? He's a subject matter expert on this topic..

[Judge]

Take a look here:

http://www.ssa.org/

Especially this page:

http://www.ssa.org/sport/whatissoaring2.asp

Here is a quote from the above page:

"You can solo if you are 14-years old or older. Most instructors feel that 30 to 35 flights are the minimum needed for most people with no previous flight experience. An experienced power (airplane) pilot can generally solo a sailplane in less than 10 flights.Gliders and glider pilots are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who set the minimum requirements for pilot certificates."

And one more page:

http://www.ssa.org/sport/GliderPilot.asp

Bill
ASEL
Glider - Aerotow, Winch

[GremlinX]

Thanks for the links, that is helpful. The club won't return my calls or emails. I think maybe I will go to the bigger club and let them take my money. They do ridge soaring as well as thermals.... The local just has thermal soaring.

[tommy321]

The other thing to realize is that most glider clubs (at least around where I am) are volunteer operations that only run when there are members available to do flying.
The gliding club I fly out of typically is only staffed on weekends, and only occasionally during the week. Other times, there's no one in the clubhouse to answer calls. That might be the reason why you're not getting calls returned from them. Be sure to visit the ones in your area and join the one that you feel is best.

There are 3 gliding clubs within 2 hrs driving of Ottawa, and each one has a different flavour, and a different fleet of gliders.

I instruct gliders and fly the towplane out at the gatineau gliding club here in Ottawa. An ab initio guy, if he makes an effort to fly at least once a week, and isn't completely uncoordinated is generally solo by the end of one summer, and licensed by the second summer.

The Transport Canada rules may be slightly different than the FAA... but here, the only real difference between flying solo on your student permit and having a license is that a licensed pilot can take passengers... so alot of students stay students a little longer and start flying the clubs single seat aircraft before they go for their full flight test.

Personnally, if I'm flying for recreation, give me a sailplane over a powered aircraft. I think that flying a glider well takes more finesse and skill than flying a Cessna from A to B. You're continuously planning where to hit your next thermal, where do land if you don't connect with a thermal etc. etc.... Any uncoordination of the ailerons and rudder creates drag that will cause you to sink faster than you have to. And there's nothing like circling in a thermal with a giant Hawk about 20ft off your wingtip

Tom

[GremlinX]

These are some pics just last month. This is a couple of pics... I am not in any of them, but my friend Nick "grandpaw" is in the same glider that I flew in with the same instructor....

[tommy321]

Nice pictures. That's the same towplane as we use, Piper Pawnee. We also have a Citabria for backup.

I took my girlfriend up for a ride earlier this spring. She snapped a bit of video with my digital camera during one of the thermals. She's doing most of the narration

Here ya go... gives you an idea of how quiet it is one of these... (except of course when she dangled the camera out the window.

http://www.engsoc.org/~thastie/Gliding.wmv

The still shots from that flight are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tom.hastie/2007_05_12



Tom

[pitviper51]

great vid tom. bring back those good times!! if i had a choice between a club that only thermaled to a club that had ridge soaring , ridge soaring would be the ticket it is soo much fun.. not to forget finding a modern trainer will be great to. like a grob 103 or duo discus.. or ask21,, they fly a bit faster and have better flight ratio.. unlike my ask13 withthe 1/15 sink rate heheh i may have to get back into this ..
mike