Train in USA or Europe??

If you want to be SURE of good flying weather there are a few places you
can go. If you have a family who also want a holiday, few can compare
with the cost, scenery, and family options available in South Africa.

You can go to commercial operations like Soaring-Safaris in
Bloemfontein, or the more hard core Gariep Dam aviation at Gariep.
There are also options at a couple of the larger clubs that are a lot
more affordable. These clubs have international members who come here
for the flying.

Look at www.SSSA.org.za for more information.

Choose your poison, but it may spoil UK soaring for you forever. Sunday
was good for 4:20 - in mid-winter. Oh, and I was flying with a short
sleeve cotton shirt.

Hey Ian

Come visit me - I'll even let you fly my Cirrus a bit...
Last three flights 4:05, 3:15, 4:20 - Mid-winter - Africa is tough.

tango4 wrote:

The weather has been so marginal that I'm going to buy a boat! If I can't
fly I might as well go sailing.

Ian


"mosquito" wrote in message
...

Anywhere but the UK! It has been a particularly bad season here

weatherwise.

Too true. The UK is always a pot-luck prospect, when your activity is

weather

critical. A soaring friend of mine who's learning to Paraglide, has been
grounded for a couple of weeks due to unfavourable weather. That's the

main

reason I'm giving serious consideration to the western USA.

Many of the US clubs I assumed didn't offer instruction, do. The German

club looks

good, but doesn't have an English version.

Thanks.

I must be living in a different UK to you guys. This
year has been pretty good really.

Owain



At 10:42 21 July 2003, Bruce Greeff wrote:
Hey Ian

Come visit me - I'll even let you fly my Cirrus a bit...
Last three flights 4:05, 3:15, 4:20 - Mid-winter -
Africa is tough.

tango4 wrote:

The weather has been so marginal that I'm going to
buy a boat! If I can't
fly I might as well go sailing.

Ian


'mosquito' wrote in message
...

Anywhere but the UK! It has been a particularly bad
season here

weatherwise.

Too true. The UK is always a pot-luck prospect, when
your activity is

weather

critical. A soaring friend of mine who's learning to
Paraglide, has been
grounded for a couple of weeks due to unfavourable
weather. That's the

main

reason I'm giving serious consideration to the western
USA.

Many of the US clubs I assumed didn't offer instruction,
do. The German

club looks

good, but doesn't have an English version.

Thanks.

On 21 Jul 2003 11:54:17 GMT, Owain Walters
wrote:


I must be living in a different UK to you guys. This
year has been pretty good really.

Speaking entirely from my experiences, May was excellent and I thought
it was the start of a great year, but the last two months have been
pretty dire. OK for local soaring, I suppose, but nothing I could do a
significant xc in.

Maybe I should just practise harder :-(


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

As a past team-mate used to say, who is now a new World
Champion, 'Go Hard or Go Home'. ;-)

Seriously, I think this has been the best year so far
for about 5 years. We may not have had great weather
every weekend but rarely been completly washed out
and have managed to dredge something out of the day.

But none of this mock banter answers this blokes question.
If you want a holiday in the sun then go somewhere
overseas. If you want good quality and relevant instruction
stay here (I am not saying the quality is worse anywhere
else but I doubt its higher enough to make a long trip
worthwhile).

If you are already a glider pilot then it wont take
long before you are let loose on yourself anyway.

Owain







At 15:00 21 July 2003, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On 21 Jul 2003 11:54:17 GMT, Owain Walters
wrote:


I must be living in a different UK to you guys. This
year has been pretty good really.

Speaking entirely from my experiences, May was excellent
and I thought
it was the start of a great year, but the last two
months have been
pretty dire. OK for local soaring, I suppose, but nothing
I could do a
significant xc in.

Maybe I should just practise harder :-(


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

Not that I think that it would cheer you up, but the reason for the last two
month's UK wheather is a pretty strong Acore high pressure (deviating all
cyclones to the north) which has given the Alps (at least the western part)
the best conditions since at least 10 years. And not just one day - since
beginning of June, the conditions are just tremendeous.

Sorry for that...

Bert

"Martin Gregorie" a écrit dans le message de
...
On 21 Jul 2003 11:54:17 GMT, Owain Walters
wrote:


I must be living in a different UK to you guys. This
year has been pretty good really.

Speaking entirely from my experiences, May was excellent and I thought
it was the start of a great year, but the last two months have been
pretty dire. OK for local soaring, I suppose, but nothing I could do a
significant xc in.

Maybe I should just practise harder :-(


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

I'm personaly very interested in trying Minden and Tahoe in
the Western US. Huge thermals, wave in the winter, and
huge convergence make this a mecca for Western soaring
for me. And the prices at SoarMinden look pretty reasonable
too.

Training somewhere that allows you to use water because there
is so much lift, and probably requires oxygen too, would be
my choice. Probably not as good for beginners
(Avenal, Hobbs, and Tucson have super cheap club type
operations for that, and there are tons of other great
sites here in the western US for just getting a US rating).

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~mjboyd/cfi/glider/gliderclubs

was my survey of California, USA gliderports about a year ago.

For my training, I picked a place that was low hassle
(I didn't want umpteen checkout flights), had a variety of
gliders, had cheap and available tows, had cheap rentals,
and had great soaring nearby. Avenal is three hours drive
away, and I'm willing to do that instead of Hollister
(which is significantly more expensive, has less variety
but higher performance gliders, and has infrequent
soaring conditions, but has better instructor
availability - 7 days a week).

Bruce,

I agree completley thats why I am only just back from
Spain. But this chap has 40 hours and I think that
suggesting a place that boasts 1000km tasks may not
be entirely relevant.

My advice is:- go where you want. Everyone here will
always have a better suggestion so you will never get
a good concensus.

Owain

mosquito s comments read:

the first thing I think of when someone mentions SA is, 'doesn't it have
a high crime rate?'

It's only because the local pilots keep trying to steal the aircraft
that have been imported for the season ;-)
--
Tim - ASW20CL "20"