worth learning to fly gliders?

Emily schrieb:

Is it worth it?

If you just want to add another rating to your collection to show off to
the girls, no. If you're really looking for the experience of soaring,
definitely yes.

But soaring isn't just "go there, do my lesson and go home". Soaring
takes the better part of a day, and the need of friends which help to
rig the glider in the morning, de-rig in the evening and possibly
retrieve from an outlanding. (And a very tolerant wife!)

There are clubs and there are commercial operations. As always: Clubs
are cheaper money-wise but make this up by voluntary work. There's no
free lunch.

At http://www.ssa.org you'll find a list of clubs as well as commercial
operations. Pick your choice. You can also look into rec.aviation.soaring.

A last word: You should definitely look for an operation (club or
commercial) which a) has a modern fleet and b) encourages cross country
flying. Otherwise you'll miss the best part of the joy of soaring.

Stefan

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:39:09 -0500, Emily
wrote:

Haven't actually flown VFR much for years, except while instructing. I
really only fly to go somewhere, but have been toying with the idea of a
glider rating for a while. Is it worth it? The glider clubs I've
talked to find out I'm an A&P and want me to maintain their aircraft,
something I'm not willing to do. Are clubs the only way to fly gliders?
I kind of just want to do my lesson and go home, and not worry about
"working" at the airfield.

One of the best decisions I made after getting my CFI was to get a
glider rating instead of multi-engine. Flying gliders really
reinforces the concept of flying the wing, coordination, planning
ahead and energy management. Along with being very educational, it
was an absolute BLAST and I would highly recommend it.

I learned from a club. I helped where I could, but there was never
any pressure to do more than offered. A&Ps help save a club a bunch
of money if they volunteer in a maintenance capacity, but I'd think
you could pass on being the club A&P without too much problem.

Good luck on your quest.
z

zatatime wrote:
On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:39:09 -0500, Emily
wrote:

snip
I learned from a club. I helped where I could, but there was never
any pressure to do more than offered. A&Ps help save a club a bunch
of money if they volunteer in a maintenance capacity, but I'd think
you could pass on being the club A&P without too much problem.

I do understand that, and I feel guilty, but I also need to think about
liability. The planes I saw weren't exactly maintained like the
aircraft I'm used to (airlines) and my ticket means more to me than
helping a club save a few bucks.

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:23:59 -0500, Emily
wrote:

zatatime wrote:
On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:39:09 -0500, Emily
wrote:

snip
I learned from a club. I helped where I could, but there was never
any pressure to do more than offered. A&Ps help save a club a bunch
of money if they volunteer in a maintenance capacity, but I'd think
you could pass on being the club A&P without too much problem.

I do understand that, and I feel guilty, but I also need to think about
liability. The planes I saw weren't exactly maintained like the
aircraft I'm used to (airlines) and my ticket means more to me than
helping a club save a few bucks.


I don't blame you and completely understand (don't feel guilty).
Without your job, you couldn't afford to glide! Someone else said to
just be firm. I agree and think you can do it in a polite way. If
the club is fairly large, you should be ok, and I'd hope they
understand your position.

z

The difference between power planes and gliders is similar to the difference
between having a small motorboat vs. a similarly sized sailboat on a lake.
After two or three laps in the motorboat, the fun is gone. You can go
sailing for years.

Others have pointed out the pluses and minuses of a commercial vs. club
operation. In addition to limiting the amount of personal time invested, a
commercial operation usually gives you the option to fly during the week
(most clubs are primarily weekend operations), making it possible to get
your rating in a much shorter period of time than thru a club using
volunteer instructors.

On the other hand, a lot of the fun of soaring is hanging out at the field
in a club environment and helping out with launching / retrieving gliders,
etc..... Another option, if you have sufficient hours, is to help out by
acting as a tow pilot.

Mike Schumann

"Emily" wrote in message
. ..
Haven't actually flown VFR much for years, except while instructing. I
really only fly to go somewhere, but have been toying with the idea of a
glider rating for a while. Is it worth it? The glider clubs I've talked
to find out I'm an A&P and want me to maintain their aircraft, something
I'm not willing to do. Are clubs the only way to fly gliders? I kind of
just want to do my lesson and go home, and not worry about "working" at
the airfield.

On 2006-06-18, Emily wrote:
Haven't actually flown VFR much for years, except while instructing. I
really only fly to go somewhere, but have been toying with the idea of a
glider rating for a while. Is it worth it?

There are commercial operations which are just like a regular FBO, but
they are not as common as a club. You can always tell the club when you
join that yes, I'm an A&P, but no, I'm not doing your maintenance
(although generally in a club environment, everyone has to muck in
somehow - but there are plenty of other non-A&P jobs to be done such as
flying the tow plane to running wings).

As for whether soaring is worth it, I'll just let my videos speak for
that. You'll need an MPEG-4 video player - if you don't have one get VLC
- http://www.videolan.org - which is a free open source MPEG-4 player.

http://www.alioth.net/Video/AGC2005.mp4
http://www.alioth.net/Video/HatCam.mp4

(There's a few others in http://www.alioth.net/Video)

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