For a UK example, I am 62, I started flying in May 2021, at DSGC North Hill. Apart from 4 aero tow launches for spin training, all other launches were winched. In July 2022 I went solo with 10hrs 40mins, with a total of 72 launches, and it cost me £1381.08. It is the best money I have ever spent.....! Because of poor autumn weather it then took ages to get off daily checks, but I've since converted to single seater, and looking forward to further training and spending as much time as humanly possible catching up on what I should have been doing for the last 20 years!!!
@@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhanAbsolutely. We had 60 year olds coming in as pedestrian, never flew anything themselves, and now owns his own glider, and is very active in the club and flying. If you start at 40 it will be easier, and you have mor time enjoying flying ahead of you.
Just wanted to say, that yesterday I passed official exam! Now just 1mo waiting for the license, thanks for keeping me motivated throughout the 1y of training :)
Here in Germany (Hahnweide Airfield) we pay 6€ per winch launch, around 4€/minute in Tow and around 15-20€ per hour for the glider (+ some club fees and 60hours of time at our workshop for maintaining the gliders )
very similar prices in Czechia, the winch launches are a little cheaper though - around 3€ per launch. As a student, you usually fly around 120 winch launches and around 15 tows, until you complete the national syllabus and can get your license.
My grandad is still a glider instructor at 85 years old and he works more hours each week than most Americans. 🙈 I guess what they say is true, “If you truly love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”
different here (NL): I pay a anual fee of 700 euros, all are asked for 40 hours maintenance repair time in the winter days, and thats it. free takeoff, free glider, free winch .....
Hey, also dutch here.. we have a different system, for youth its about €250 per year and adults are about €500 per year. And we can buy a amount of flight, like 20, 50, 80, 120 or unlimited.. and we choose at the beginning of the season how much we want and we can always upgrade.. its about 3.50 per flight i think and unlimited is 450 or something, we also have the 40 hours of winger maintenance
That sounds like a fabulous deal. Are there any subsidies from outside sources? In the US I don't think our club could survive on $700 per member. Our dues are around $450/ yr plus tow fees($60 to 3,000 agl) and glider rental ($30/hr). There's also a joining fee.
I am apparently cleared to go solo (am awaiting an approval from Transport Canada - a new nonsense requirement). Here in Canada we have to cover first good circuits and secondly good upper air work. In essence it has taken me 42 flights. Most other pilots I know have taken that average of 42 flights. . I'd like to get scientific about tow time and glider time, but one simple look at my average costs per flight (all thrown in) and its $120 per flight. Our membership fee is $700 per year. . Hence ($120 x 42) + $700 = $5,740 (spent over the season) . . . some advice: 1. Try be as regular as possible: go out every weekend - even on crappy days (you can do circuits on crappy days). 2. If you take breaks between lessons your progress will be hampered. 3. As you get better identify the instructors who you do well in communication. You often find that a handful of instructors 'click' well in their communication with you. It is NOT a criticism of instructors, it is a communication finesse and as you start getting better you don't want your flight record hampered by an instruction communication 'issue' or it will cost you money. 4. Be prepared for a type of 'S-curve' in your learning ie: you were improving so well then suddenly you start getting worse. This is normal. 5. Above all make it clear in your mind that you need to become an inherently safe pilot. For example if your instructor had to over power your final approach because you did something dangerous - take that lesson seriously! . . A suggested bit of advice to all instructors: simply ask your student if there is anything that they want to ask or know about the most recent flight. Too often instructors are more prepared to lecture the student than to listen to the student or get feed back from the student. . . Please remember: we do this for the love and fun - NOT TO GET HURT. Let's fly safe
In Europe we only need the medical certificate for light aircraft (LAPL) to be allowed to flight solo. It adds €170 to the costs, but it lasts for 4 years until you become 40. I am in the same situation as you, funny coincidence! I can tell the same about the instructors and the ups and downs during the learning process. This and other RUclips channels are a great source of inspiration to get the motivation high after frustrating days :-)
Where are you located in Canada> I've heard it cost about $4,500 but that may be an estimate... your $value sounds about right. Also, are you planning to go over class B airspace?
If you are young like me then you can join air cadets here in canada ita like i. The movies or us and your not forced to do everything and they can pay for your glider and plane license thats what im doing
I did a glider training last year in Czechia. Total cost was little over 3000 EUR. I did it with 2 other guys and we all needed around 100 flights to first solo. Those flights included everything from basics through circuits and terrain landings to spins and stalls. I did it in L13 Blanik, witch is awesome school plane.
@@PureGlide i wonder how much simming can take off that time needed^^ condor 2 for excample is a quite good soaring simulator... i know for ppl that have no course they might get bad habits from a sim (not flying to the rules of the book) but i believe that having sim expirience definatley helps
The first thing I notice in your video is the heavenly environment of your country (nice improvement since Sauron :-) Here (Eastern Canada), because of significantly less favorable flying conditions, a short paved runway 12 feet wide, and 90° crosswinds 80% of the time, a gifted student will take no less than 40 hours and ±40 circuits to reach solo, 60hrs/50 cir. for an average pilot and +80hrs/60 cir. for the less gifted. At least $4000 us, that's for sure.
In the Netherlands at my club in Teuge (entirely run by volunteers) it's surprisingly cheap: - Monthly club fee: €72,50 - Yearly contribution to the Royal Dutch Aviation Association (required insurance): €187,- - Before your first solo flight, you need to do a required medical test (every 5, 2 or 1 years depending on age): €110,- - They do expect you to help with winter maintenance for about 40 hours every winter period - Of course on a flght day, you need to help around the field the whole day to get other people in the air, returning gliders after they landed, etc. So biggest investment is actually time, because you can't just show up in the middle of the day, fly a few times and go home in 3 hours. You have to be there from 10:00 till about ~17:00-18:00 to help keep the whole thing going. Of course, you also get to fly in between and you can normally make about 3-4 flights on such a day :) I think that's fair and keeps the price low, but be prepared to schedule a whole day in your weekend for flying if you want to do it regularly. For that club fee you get: - Free winch starts - Plane tow starts at just €26,- per use - Free use of club gliders - Free flights together with an instructor for your traineeship - Free theory lessons during winter period (but actual exam costs €20,- a module, with 9 modules thats €180,- total)
In my club it's similar except you fly only once a day. The issue being, a lot of students for few instructors. So it's cheap but incredibly time consuming.
The short answer : Contact your local club, and you'll learn it's often surprisingly affordable. If you're in UK, the initial course can be had very cheaply off-season, and a "to solo" plan really doesn't cost very much. Go on, you know you want to !!
If you want to have your own glider , an old club class at 20,000 euros, it will cost you about 3,000 euros per year if you fly 60 hours , not counting the lost value of the glider . When I started , fifty years ago , it cost me about 6,000 francs for three weeks of training . Food and shelter (barrack room style) were included . That sum was about a teacher's three week pay or 1,500 euros . At the end of the three weeks I had 20 flights and 8 hours and my instructor wanted to let me solo , but I declined, feeling not yet ready . I soloed the next year, at my club, after 6 , 7 aditional flights .
Yes, many ask this question, not knowing that it is almost irrelevant. Getting your license is only the beginning. The question that I ask in return. Is, “What can you comfortably budget per month, on flying?”. That’s the number that is important to being able to fly regularly to maintain proficiency. The license is only the first expense in a lifetime commitment. Think in the long term to decide if flying s for you.
Great point. Flying is both a time AND financial investment/commitment. I have two small kids and a demanding full time job, so currently i can't afford flying for fun, time-wise, even though i can finance it easily. But as soon as they grow up a bit, i am definitely getting back into the cockpit. Cheers!
Hi guys. I am 61 years old and I fly in Argentina (70km from Buenos Aires). Here the glider pilot course consists of approximately 50 flights (depending on the ability of the student, in my case there were 30). The last 10 were ¨solo flights¨ Each flight costs approximately USD 20 (Instructor and glider included). Once the license is obtained, each airplane tow up to the height of 500 meters costs approximately USD 15. The club membership is around USD10/month. the registration to the club is USD300 (only once). In the summer season, a single fee is paid for the right to use flight equipment (gliders) of approximately USD100. I understand that there should be no place in the world where it is cheaper to fly (and other things...)
Here in the Czech Republic, full training one the glider costs 1600 - 2400 Euro. There are many aero clubs, sport flying has a great tradition here. :-)
Well, there's the cost of going solo, which is the first step towards getting licensed, and what you've covered here. There's the cost of getting licensed on top of that, which here is 20 solos with check-flights interspersed, and then your flight exam (usually 2 flights). There's ground school (15-30 hours, only $200 here), and your written exam. Then once you are licensed, you get experience soaring (staying aloft for hours vs minutes), then bronze badge, then cross-country, then you buy your own glider to fly longer and not have to reserve a club one, learn to fly in competitions, and so forth. You never stop learning to fly a glider, since you're always learning and developing better skills until it's time to hang up your bucket hat. In other words, you never stop learning to fly a glider. 🙂
Yeah it's a great point I should have mentioned, going solo is just the first step, but it gets a bit hard to say how much the rest will cost. I'll let you know if it ever stops!
Costs have shot up way higher than inflation. In the UK we have courses, for which you get temporary membership, so there is no joining fee and no per hour hire. In my day (not so long ago) I went solo for the total cost of £500 - a bargain. Since then the price of fuel, gliders, tow planes and general equipment/insurance have risen exponentially. It used to be that gliding was a small fraction of the cost of power flying but not any longer. My advice to beginners is to go on a course at an airfield with winches - it is MUCH cheaper. Take a five day "holiday" course and you might just get to solo if you have ability. Oh, and find a good, calm instructor who doesn't shout! Worry about joining the club after solo, not before.
It's worth noting that there is a lot the student can do to make the process more efficient and save money. Be responsible and proactive your own learning. Study, study, study. The more you pre-visualize what needs to happen in the glider, the less instructor time you will need and the more ready you will be to make sense of what your instructor is telling you. You should be able to pass the written test before your first lesson (IMO). Get Condor2, it's cheaper than a single lesson, so if it saves you at least one lesson then it's paid for itself. Don't just putz around with Condor, set up some disciplined lessons. Be careful of forming bad habits in Condor, real flying and instruction will trump that. Study the operating manual for the glider you will train in. You should know the speeds and how to interpret the polar before you get into it. Listen to radio calls before you have to do them. I watched about 200 gliding videos before I got in one. Be an active student, request clarification if you're not 100% getting the idea on something. Practice, practice, practice in that flight simulator between the ears. My instructor likes to say 'What is the next thing you need to know? Answer: The next 3 things you need to do'. A lot of flying is knowing without thinking what you need to do next. Preparation, preparation, preparation.
I agree with the use of Condor, especially with the caveat that it's used with at least some instructor or experienced pilot oversight, as you could learn some bad habits. The other idea, which we're about to introduce in our club, is assigning mentors to new students; a buddy who'll monitor and encourage.
here in austria we are at an international airport and we can only use AETO (aerotow) as launch option which makes flying a bit more expensive. the good side is you learn how to fly and interact at an airport also including radiocalls and airport procedures. plus you get some groundservices done for you that clubs usually have to do on their own. plus if you get into thermal flying and stay in the air longer it will get cheaper as well
Beside the regulations it seems to me that every club has its own policy/standard regarding the training you need before doing your first solo flight, or before carrying someone onboard. In our club we pay €550 anual fee, and part of it is released for flying based on how helpful you are to maintain the club (fair enough to me). Then we pay 33€/h and 10€/winch. Normally you need about 40 to 50 circuits and about 15 hours for the first solo. Altogether it is about €2000 distributed in two seasons, but you can do it in one year if you have enough free time. Comparatively, learning to fly a propellor airplane costs 150€/h!
It was around 2000 USD for me to solo last year in Moscow. The number of circuits however is dramatically higher - 57! I have an urge to say it worths every cent spent.
Was that at Shevlino? I drove out and spent a day there in 2017 when I was living in Moscow. Sadly, it seemed like it was too hard to get permission to fly solo in Russia (as an already licensed foreigner who doesn't speak much Russian). I was amused that the number of Blanik (which is what I trained in in NZ in the 1980s) was exceeded only by the number of Wilga, most of them in some state of disassembly. I've had a few tows behind one of those in NZ, but I think there is only one.
@@BruceHoult , they have moved from Shevlino to Schekino in 2018, but the crew and the fleet are the same. Yeah, Blanik will always be in my heart as it is the aircraft I went solo for the first time in my life, unforgettable experience. Unfortunately we do not have a lot of people who care working in our regulator. According to official reports zero pilots got the license in the last 4 years. Luckily it does not stop people from learning to fly. I hope it will change one day. It is a complex problem and definitely not the first priority nowadays =(
@@baschlykoff oh, that's a bit further from the city. I remember they told me there was going to be a problem flying from Shevlino during the whole summer of the World Cup. Was Schekino enough further from the city? I see it's the other side of the lake, and only 7 km flying from Shevlino.
@@BruceHoult It is 15 minutes further, but it is not dramatic. You have an option to stay at the airfield in a hostel (which is cheap) or in your tent (which is free).
Glider Club Hamburg-Boberg: 180 Euro per Quarter (720 Euros per year). Winch: 4,50 Euro per launch; cost for flightminute depends on plane (35 cents for an ASK21). Payback-System for working hours in the winter time. We are a certified flight school. For club members there a no extra fees for flights with instuctors ect. Our planes; 2 x ASK21, 2x SZD- 51 Junior, 2x LS-4b, Discus-2b, Discus-2c FES, Duo Discus XL, Duo Discus XLT, Arcus T, SF-25C Rotax Falke, Super Dimona, Romoqueur DR 400, Breezer B400-6.
The best is: We have an early and late shift roster. 09:00-14:00 /14:00 - 19:00. You don't have to spend the whole day on the airfield like in many others clubs. Very familiy friendly.
Henry: I tried to introduce a duty roster for the tow pilots in my US club and almost had a riot on my hands! We haven’t had a ‘no-flying’ day due to a lack of tow pilots but it is always a struggle to get one while not burning out the one or two who are always willing to jump in.
@@ulin4226 "...almost had a riot on my hands" Hahaha, you made my day! It seems to be all the same around the globe :-D This two shift roster gave us some peace. Every club member starts the season (April) with 0 points. At the end of the season (October) the number must be 50. For every job you get points. For example: Winch driver in April-May early shift 3 points, Winch driver June/july late shift 6 points.
did my first flight a bit more than a month ago. and yeah youre right, there is really no point of watching other people fly. there is no adrenaline. you have no control about the glider, where you look and so on. and the most important of all: to have memories and stories to tell. you cannot just tell someone "oh i watched someone on youtube gliding", why just not "oh yeah btw i became a glider pilot now and i did this and that". and its just boring to watch other people fly
Great coverage of the fundamentals tim, thank you 👍 ask a local driving instructor for a similar set of numbers, it would be a great comparison for youngsters
I was lucky enough to be in the air cadets in England when I was younger for years and I got myself on a gliding course for a week so the course didn’t actually cost me apart from the monthly subs of £2 plus getting down there I did it at raf west milling and I went all the way to solo couldn afford when I was 16 to continue and finish off to a full glider pilot but I will never forget when you go solo for the first time it’s the best feeling in the world when your alone.
Great content ..love your vids always exciting to watch and very informative .... been following you for a while ,I am from Te Awamutu and been thinking the cost would be more than I could afford .But not now ....this last post has shown that it is something I can do and do with a passion as I have always been a dream to fly gliders ...I do have some flying experience so I hoping my age at 60 is not a issue ...and Im fit and healthy lol Cheers Much appreciate all the time and effort you do to put up your content Roger
Great video Tim, loved the beach location. Where is that? I did my ticket to first solo over a week years ago at Paraparaumu, but then had to return to Asia for work and in Singapore, there are no gliding clubs! I was never quite sure where I would have gone with gliding after achieving solo. It would be great to see a post-solo where to from here video to fill in the gap between solo and those distance awards that seem to be distant milestones to a newbie. Chur, Jeff
In AUS, at my club its about $60 Aud for a tow to 2000ft AGL, $300 Aud for all memberships and insurance, $30-$40 Aud an hour depending on glider. After the first 3 hours the glider hire is free.
Prices fairly similar here in the UK. My club does both winches and aerotows, which is handy. But ten hours to solo, twenty or so flights? Seems a bit optimistic. And the costs don't stop when you've reached that stage!
Firstly, love the content, it's very encouraging and entertaining to watch! Can't ask for more then that when it's free. Secondly, can you do a follow-up video to this as it relates to buying your first glider in NZ and the costs of owning said glider. That's probably two video's worth of idea's as I imagine buying your first glider has a lot of variables involved. Looking forward to taking the first step to becoming a glider pilot. Cheers
@@PureGlide liquid crystal ones in radios for example don't work with regular ones, with just single polarity, but they are fine with circular (I'm using those and I see radio clearly)
I went solo in 1973 from a military airfield near Dublin Ireland using a reverse auto tow. This was where the tow car drove towards the glider pulling about 6,000' of high tensile steel wire around a fixed pulley, giving quite high launches. I'm wondering why you said no poloroid glasses?
Me too - was wondering if it might have to do with ghost patterns in the plexiglass like you get in a car when you tilt your head or look through the sunroof.
this depends though, my club in the netherlands only charges about 78 euro per month all in, except for towing which is actually a bit cheaper than what you said, for us its only 30 euros per 500m and not 37. So cost to get solo is about a 1000 euro, adding about 180 for insurance to get solo and fly for a full year.
in Germany near cologne we pay 350€ membership fees, 6€ per winch launch, 38€ for a tow to 600m, 12€ per hour for the glider and you have to do 30h of maintanence
Is there a way to avoid the maintenance thing ? By maybe giving more financial support to the club, as I am usually quite busy. Asking this as I don't live far from Cologne and looking to join a club
It appears to me that you sre a genius, Tim. Very low number of flights you needed, especially since I understand that you not at all startet as a teenager. Have had my first 13 sniffer flights - with 53 - I lesrned that I'd need age + 35 flights for soloing APPROXIMATELY in glidepath vicinity of club's airfield... I think I quit the idea of becoming a glider pilot given the fact that age likely manifests in eysight, at least 3 years to go for the license - for me, since I am obviously not over-talented - and also the costs and perspectives after the license gain... Thank you very much for the extra motivation to try it out, Tom, eventually found a club just having bought an ASK21 -B (!!!) in which I suit as 198cm man. Lessons learnt: Start early in your years with gliderpiloting, if you can! Save and happy landings!!!
I fly near Frankfurt, Germany. I started to glide back in Summer 2020 after corona restrictions were lifted for us. I flew my first solo at 69 Flights and around 11 Hours of flight time. At our club, when we fly locally we don't pay for glider time or for winch launches, we only pay a yearly fee of 618EUR/ 750 NZ$, and that's it. We are one of the cheapest clubs around, but we have an amazingly low-price fleet. So, how expensive was it all in all? Until my solo 1000 EUR... 618EUR yearly+ 250EUR entry + additional launches at other clubs. Now that I had my license I had flown 211 flights at 51:11 Hours. I Paid three years of fees of 3x618 EUR, 250 EUR entry fee, 300 EUR for 2:22 Hours of tow time, and an additional fee of around 300 EUR for the winch launch not conducted at our airport. In total, I paid around 2.800 EUR, including everything except food at the airport, drinks, parties, etc.
Great video, super helpful, thank you for sharing. I’ve only one glide flight (an intro flight several years ago with a superb instructor) but I’ve been considering joining a local club and commuting to the learning process. Sorry if I missed this in the comments, but why are non-polarized lenses preferred? Thanks again.
Hi I didn’t want to go into it in the video, but polarised glasses can conflict with the instrument displays. Also some say it can cut out crucial reflections of other aircraft which we want to see, but I’m not sure how valid that is as an argument!
I wear mirror coated polarized sunglasses. The polarization is such that I can see all LCD screens. Only if I take the glasses of and turn them 90* do the LCD displays turn black. I also don’t see any ‘stress areas’ in the canopy. Since the coating is specifically a ‘blue blocker’, it helps me spot other gliders as the glare is much reduced. Very relaxing for the eyes.
I just finished my SPL in Czechia and I spent around 1500$ with all the costs of theoretical and practical exams etc. Im actually surprised by these prices, our aeroclub has price of 10€ per hour and 1 minute of aerotow costs around 3€, so tow to 1000 feet is usually about 10-12 €, so these prices in the video really surprised me
What hasn’t been said is the downsides to gliding. The gliding club I was a member of expected you to stay there the entire Saturday on Sunday pushing other gliders around and retrieving the winch cable. What made me leave the gliding scene was, I was expected to be there all day just to get x3 two minute flights in the circuit (if you didn’t get a thermal, which is most of the time in winter) and the senior members would expect me to do all the donkey work while they stood there and watched from the side with their clipboard and radio. At least with powered flying you can turn up, fly for an hour, then go home.
Yeah very true, and some clubs are better than others in that regard. All our members have to help in one way or another. Our club has a roster, it's usually one day every month or so. Pushing gliders around is up to whoever is flying them! And you can usually go for a fly on your helping day too. I'm an instructor, so I'm rostered on for that every month. Because most clubs are non-profit, everyone has to volunteer otherwise it just doesn't work. However there are some commercial glider training operations around the world that do offer the 'turn up, fly and leave', but you pay for that service...
@@PureGlide Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind helping out. But it annoyed me when some helped out more than others. I pretty much quit after a senior guy would tell me to drag a glider back while he stood there and do absolutely nothing. That’s not how to treat new and young members, especially when I was young enough to think I could be doing something else / other sports that weekend instead.
I got remarkably lucky when I learned c1990. I found a club that charged £2 a winch launch and on their flying site 1600-2000ft were quite common. I started at summers end, soloed in November, stuck at it through winter, had Bronze by next summer, and managed to do my Silver badge flights that summer. Total of around 15 hrs flying hours. I wrote a 3 part article for a model magazine on learning to fly fullsize (I was already a model flyer) and earned £360 for doing that. I have in my head (though it was a long time ago) that my total flying cost was around £500. If so, that would make the net cost around £140. Whatever, it was very cheap and probably never to be repeated ha ha.
It’s far cheaper than I thought it would be. Unfortunately there’s only one or two clubs in my state here in the US and they’re both a 2+hr drive away.
Thanks for such great content. I’m in Australia and looking into options to start a course. If you don’t mind me asking.. what about flying with a passenger? Do you need any special license or extra requirement? Once you start flying I guess it’s natural wanting to take your friends/partner for flights with you. 😁 Thanks again. 🙏🏼
Hi in New Zealand, we have to complete our glider pilot license, then you can take passengers. It's very common to take family up for a flight once you get your license as you can imagine! I assume it's similar rules in Australia.
Regarding membership fees you have some clubs that have low annual fees and they charge you by the minute when flying, and some other clubs they charge a higher annual fee, but no extra when flying (so you don't fly looking at your watch). The club where I was had the latter modality, at the time around EUR950 per year, EUR60 per towing at 600m but nothing extra per flight time.
NZ $300, 4h, 20 flights and one week 🙈 consolidate your learning, use a gopro, come prepared and try learn intensively. When I say be prepared I mean be prepared, do the study, watch your gopro videos back every single night, use visualisation techniques and buy a pure glide bucket hat.
Flying gliders is way cheaper than I anticipated. I think, up until my first solo I paid less than 1000 Euro. We do winch launching and have a flat monthly fee regardless of how many launches we do.
Do you have any Youth schemes i.e. Youthglide? May be worth mentioning - often significantly reduces cost or air cadets/ armed forces club. I learnt to fly at a RAFGSA club many years ago - it was way cheaper than a 'civilian' club, even though I had over 300 winch launches before I went solo (at 16 -min age back then) - we used to run all the winches and vehicles on the fuel that used to drip out of Lightnings.......
I am starting to learn gliding in France right and the cost per flight is much lower than that. The number of flight required to get your licence, however, is much higher. Maybe you were more skilled than most people.
Interesting! yes it also depends if there is any sports funding provided? France typically has very good sports funding available to gliding from what I understand. And yes it can vary a lot as to how long it takes to gain your full gliding licence.
@@PureGlide No the club is not funded by the state, only the training of younger ones is. But absolutely everyone is voluntary, including the instructors and the tow pilots.
Denmark - my club. Winch launch 6 euro Tow to 1500ft 35 euro Glider rent School Twin astir 16 euro pr hour, first 10 minutes free. (perfect for student pilots) mothly membership in the club 86 euro In my old club you paid 1350Euros a year and had free flying in the club fleet (Arcus t, Discus 2bt, Discus 2ct) Very cheap..
But in each and every of your videos (which I like a lot) you keep saying it’s all about experience to take the right decisions! So solo stage is not sufficient. Safe solo stage is much farther isn’t it? I tried to learn when I was 45 or so. I loved the idea but it freaked me too much. Especially the towing (too scared to take the tow plane down) and also spiraling up into thermals banking 45 degrees. The flight itself is a bliss.
Yeah it's very tricky to know when to send students solo. Generally we want to ensure they can handle any situation thrown at them, e.g. a spin, thermalling, other aircraft etc. And it's why you start off going solo on calm days without much other traffic, to reduce the number of factors, so you don't need so much experience when starting. Cheers!
@@henryluebberstedt7819 60 launch (aerotows) + instruction + club membership, this if you are older than 40 if not you have to pay it when you become 40.
So on the other side of the earth(Finland, 2021 season) Took me about 3000€ to get the license, of which 2200€ are for the training flights, (60 of your first flights, doesn't matter duo or solo. I flew my first solo on my 31:st flight after about 8.5h of time in the air), everything else is for theory, exams etc. After those 60 flights at least in our club, you can either pay 15€(Winch launch) or about 35€(Airplane launch, 500m/around 1700-1800ft by quick math) + hiring the glider depends on the glider itself(starting from like 9€ per hour for the K-8B and ending at sub 30€ at the best gliders we have) + yearly about 120-140€ depending on your age. Or you can buy that "whole year package", which is 650€ for under 25 years olds and was it 900 or 950 for over 25 years olds. With those yearly 120-140€ on top of that. And that includes unlimited flight time, winch launches, landings(we don't have a landing fee in our club because we are also the main maintanance group of the field, on other fields landing fee is usually also only for SEP and larger), but you do have to pay if you want an airplane launch. So starting would be around 3000-4000€ depending on a club, and then it's around 800-1500€ a year depending on the club, launch type, amount of flying(not all clubs have this whole season package) etc. And you also can make up some of that money by operating the winch on some occasions.
In Aus I'm paying in AUD of course but it's $620 for membership per year, $400 per year Glider association. $8 per min Tow, $1.30 - $1.50 for Glider. $3 ground fee per flying day. What do you reckon?
Not far off our costs too, we’ve had a slight price bump since I made this video. The real trick is to reduce glider time costs if they have a bulk purchase scheme… nothing worse than feeling like you have to head back because you’re being charged by the minute!
I've been Glidering in my Glider with my fellow Gliderers . . Thermalling in the Thermals on money that should be Her's . . London UK , Membership £750 . . Aerotow 2000ft £40 . . Winch Launch £10 . . K21 hire 75p per min . . aprox.
Is there a gliding club in Pauanui as I can’t find anything listed local there to start learning one day. Will try to put away 3k tho. Only know of scenic double there in summer a few years ago. Great channel and content btw.
I've wanted to do this for almost fifty years. Still haven't found the combination of a local club, money, and spare time. Retirement coming up, and my overall health and vision are still quite good, but I'm going to be broke again -- maybe a part-time retirement job. Then I have to get a waiver from my partner, who has already vetoed hang gliding...
Good luck! A few hurdles :) another option is to join a club but not do all the training, just go out for the occasional flight with an instructor. Some is better than none ?!
@@PureGlide Well, after posting above, I searched out the only local glider club. Good news is, for members, instruction and glider rental are free. Bad news is US$1000 to join and US$600 a year membership (plus SSA membership another US$75) -- so I presume that's US$1675 up front before any instruction. Tow fees are about normal, and it looks like they own their airfield, so no landing fees. Not impossible, that's a couple income tax refunds for the first year (and going every weekend, I ought to be able to get my solo or even full license in a year) -- but I won't get tax refunds after I retire. They do "day membership" for US$100 for a weekend, includes on 3000 foot tow and glider rental, additional tows at regular rate, which would be a decent deal if one already has a solo certificate and wants to fly a few weekends a year, but it looks like the same US$1800-2000 to get to solo -- but with most of the money up front.
For my life vicarious, it is much cheaper and less demanding mentally to watch the mad people do their stuff on RUclips and occasionally look down on the plebs from a steep hill. If I want to be among the clouds I have a boil-up for a cuppa and observe the kettle prior to it switching off automatically when it has done its stuff.
I've gone from 123kg back down to 112kg, so to celebrate I'll by buying your funny hat when I reach under 110kg and I might make my way up to Benalla to give it a go. :)
I tired training las year and did my fist 10 starts and landing in an AKS13. The costs were ok but for other things make me wonder if it is right for me. First I got sick on 40% of the flights. I did not have to throw up but it was unpleasant. The second thing is the time commitment. It is not like any other sport where you go for an hour in the evening. It is a 7:00 - 20:00 Day for me and only really makes sense if you commit 2/3 of your weekends. I am not sure yet if I will continue that hobby.
Sorry to hear! Yeah the motion sickness can be a big problem. Some do get over it with time. Others learn to control it with some non-drowsy drugs. And yeah time can be a big issue too. Once you've done your training it is less of an issue, just go out when you want to. Good luck, cheers
In New Zealand, UK, and Australia, most instructors are volunteers. There are some commercial operations around with commercial instructors (like Milan at Kahu Soaring in New Zealand). Not sure about the US sorry, I suspect clubs are volunteers there too.
Need to ditch that expensive old Pawnee and get a Eurofox - really cheapened aerotows in the UK............... the 915 engined Eurofox outperforms the Pawnee..
Hi, I want to learn gliding but there are no clubs here. Assuming your club is in New Zealand and I pay 1400 USD for just one month will you help me to learn it in just a month cause I am free this summer.
Hi sorry I can’t instruct commercially, as I don’t have the right license, or time to do it. Best bet is to go to a country that has commercial training, some clubs in Australia or Europe can do that I think. Good luck!
Too expensive for just about everybody... Compared to say flying FPV quadcopters, which that kind of money would buy top of the line premium equipment... and a lot of it... so you can fly all you want for the rest of your life thereafter for free. If you really want to fly cheaply though, the simulator is the way to go. Assuming you already have a home computer, you can be up in the sky fast and fly around and crash all you want forever... for under $200 for a controller and software. Simulators really are the way to fly all your heart ever desires safely... for free... for ever. Which is why gliding and private aviation is in nosedive decline.
Good question, basically polarized glasses have two issues: 1) Instruments and displays might not be readable depending on their polarisation angle, they can cancel each other out. 2) they reduce the chance of glints off other aircraft.
Perfect! it's more about finding an aircraft, a way to launch, an airfield and satisfying the legal requirements. So a bit of funding would be good, but if you set up a winching operation it wouldn't cost too much.
Really nice video. Unfortunately, most people still tend to think gliding is really expensive and only for the "elite" while in reality, it's very affordable
For a UK example, I am 62, I started flying in May 2021, at DSGC North Hill. Apart from 4 aero tow launches for spin training, all other launches were winched. In July 2022 I went solo with 10hrs 40mins, with a total of 72 launches, and it cost me £1381.08. It is the best money I have ever spent.....! Because of poor autumn weather it then took ages to get off daily checks, but I've since converted to single seater, and looking forward to further training and spending as much time as humanly possible catching up on what I should have been doing for the last 20 years!!!
I am 52 , considering it myself next year (when have the £££ :) )
you went solo after 10 hours?
"what I should have been doing for the last 20 years!!!"
So starting around 40 is perfectly fine?
@@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhanAbsolutely. We had 60 year olds coming in as pedestrian, never flew anything themselves, and now owns his own glider, and is very active in the club and flying.
If you start at 40 it will be easier, and you have mor time enjoying flying ahead of you.
Are there any eligibility for pilot license to make a solo flight in glider ?!
Just wanted to say, that yesterday I passed official exam! Now just 1mo waiting for the license, thanks for keeping me motivated throughout the 1y of training :)
Awesome, great work!
Congratulations! Where are you located at?
@@ulin4226 in Poland, did my licence in Warsaw :)
@@widnyj5561do you have snap because I have some questions and I'm allos from 🇪🇺
Here in Germany (Hahnweide Airfield) we pay 6€ per winch launch, around 4€/minute in Tow and around 15-20€ per hour for the glider (+ some club fees and 60hours of time at our workshop for maintaining the gliders )
very similar prices in Czechia, the winch launches are a little cheaper though - around 3€ per launch. As a student, you usually fly around 120 winch launches and around 15 tows, until you complete the national syllabus and can get your license.
@@matussurovcak2993 120 launches sound pretty solid. A pity we did not have any winches in Ukraine..
@@cyrildanilchenko6776 do you have winch launches now? Or only drones and missiles launches? 😂
@@nicks22 drones, missiles and I've heard rumors of some HG dune soaring. BTW, I'm fundraising for my aerial reconnaissance squad 🙂
@@cyrildanilchenko6776 the best of luck my friend
My grandad is still a glider instructor at 85 years old and he works more hours each week than most Americans. 🙈 I guess what they say is true, “If you truly love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”
different here (NL): I pay a anual fee of 700 euros, all are asked for 40 hours maintenance repair time in the winter days, and thats it. free takeoff, free glider, free winch .....
That sounds great!
Hey, also dutch here.. we have a different system, for youth its about €250 per year and adults are about €500 per year. And we can buy a amount of flight, like 20, 50, 80, 120 or unlimited.. and we choose at the beginning of the season how much we want and we can always upgrade.. its about 3.50 per flight i think and unlimited is 450 or something, we also have the 40 hours of winger maintenance
Hey, can you please tell me which club that is? I might be interested in joining.
That sounds like a fabulous deal. Are there any subsidies from outside sources? In the US I don't think our club could survive on $700 per member. Our dues are around $450/ yr plus tow fees($60 to 3,000 agl) and glider rental ($30/hr). There's also a joining fee.
@@a.noniem7455 here at Vliegclub Teuge we have about the same system. ~1000 euro annual fee, but we ask time for winter maintenance.
I am apparently cleared to go solo (am awaiting an approval from Transport Canada - a new nonsense requirement). Here in Canada we have to cover first good circuits and secondly good upper air work. In essence it has taken me 42 flights. Most other pilots I know have taken that average of 42 flights.
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I'd like to get scientific about tow time and glider time, but one simple look at my average costs per flight (all thrown in) and its $120 per flight. Our membership fee is $700 per year.
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Hence ($120 x 42) + $700 = $5,740 (spent over the season)
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some advice:
1. Try be as regular as possible: go out every weekend - even on crappy days (you can do circuits on crappy days).
2. If you take breaks between lessons your progress will be hampered.
3. As you get better identify the instructors who you do well in communication. You often find that a handful of instructors 'click' well in their communication with you. It is NOT a criticism of instructors, it is a communication finesse and as you start getting better you don't want your flight record hampered by an instruction communication 'issue' or it will cost you money.
4. Be prepared for a type of 'S-curve' in your learning ie: you were improving so well then suddenly you start getting worse. This is normal.
5. Above all make it clear in your mind that you need to become an inherently safe pilot. For example if your instructor had to over power your final approach because you did something dangerous - take that lesson seriously!
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A suggested bit of advice to all instructors: simply ask your student if there is anything that they want to ask or know about the most recent flight. Too often instructors are more prepared to lecture the student than to listen to the student or get feed back from the student.
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Please remember: we do this for the love and fun - NOT TO GET HURT. Let's fly safe
Congrats! and thanks for the info
In Europe we only need the medical certificate for light aircraft (LAPL) to be allowed to flight solo. It adds €170 to the costs, but it lasts for 4 years until you become 40.
I am in the same situation as you, funny coincidence! I can tell the same about the instructors and the ups and downs during the learning process. This and other RUclips channels are a great source of inspiration to get the motivation high after frustrating days :-)
Where are you located in Canada> I've heard it cost about $4,500 but that may be an estimate... your $value sounds about right. Also, are you planning to go over class B airspace?
If you are young like me then you can join air cadets here in canada ita like i. The movies or us and your not forced to do everything and they can pay for your glider and plane license thats what im doing
I did a glider training last year in Czechia. Total cost was little over 3000 EUR. I did it with 2 other guys and we all needed around 100 flights to first solo. Those flights included everything from basics through circuits and terrain landings to spins and stalls. I did it in L13 Blanik, witch is awesome school plane.
Thanks for sharing!
@@PureGlide i wonder how much simming can take off that time needed^^ condor 2 for excample is a quite good soaring simulator... i know for ppl that have no course they might get bad habits from a sim (not flying to the rules of the book) but i believe that having sim expirience definatley helps
@@luxaly9510 im planning on doing that sometime this year using MSFS2020 in VR with a hotas. well see how it goes
The first thing I notice in your video is the heavenly environment of your country (nice improvement since Sauron :-)
Here (Eastern Canada), because of significantly less favorable flying conditions, a short paved runway 12 feet wide, and 90° crosswinds 80% of the time, a gifted student will take no less than 40 hours and ±40 circuits to reach solo, 60hrs/50 cir. for an average pilot and +80hrs/60 cir. for the less gifted. At least $4000 us, that's for sure.
In the Netherlands at my club in Teuge (entirely run by volunteers) it's surprisingly cheap:
- Monthly club fee: €72,50
- Yearly contribution to the Royal Dutch Aviation Association (required insurance): €187,-
- Before your first solo flight, you need to do a required medical test (every 5, 2 or 1 years depending on age): €110,-
- They do expect you to help with winter maintenance for about 40 hours every winter period
- Of course on a flght day, you need to help around the field the whole day to get other people in the air, returning gliders after they landed, etc.
So biggest investment is actually time, because you can't just show up in the middle of the day, fly a few times and go home in 3 hours. You have to be there from 10:00 till about ~17:00-18:00 to help keep the whole thing going. Of course, you also get to fly in between and you can normally make about 3-4 flights on such a day :) I think that's fair and keeps the price low, but be prepared to schedule a whole day in your weekend for flying if you want to do it regularly.
For that club fee you get:
- Free winch starts
- Plane tow starts at just €26,- per use
- Free use of club gliders
- Free flights together with an instructor for your traineeship
- Free theory lessons during winter period (but actual exam costs €20,- a module, with 9 modules thats €180,- total)
Sounds good!
In my club it's similar except you fly only once a day. The issue being, a lot of students for few instructors. So it's cheap but incredibly time consuming.
The short answer : Contact your local club, and you'll learn it's often surprisingly affordable. If you're in UK, the initial course can be had very cheaply off-season, and a "to solo" plan really doesn't cost very much.
Go on, you know you want to !!
YES! I'm inspired to go now
If you want to have your own glider , an old club class at 20,000 euros, it will cost you about 3,000 euros per year if you fly 60 hours , not counting the lost value of the glider .
When I started , fifty years ago , it cost me about 6,000 francs for three weeks of training . Food and shelter (barrack room style) were included . That sum was about a teacher's three week pay or 1,500 euros .
At the end of the three weeks I had 20 flights and 8 hours and my instructor wanted to let me solo , but I declined, feeling not yet ready . I soloed the next year, at my club, after 6 , 7 aditional flights .
Stay tuned, I might make another video about how much gliders cost to buy and maintain! Cheers for the info
Yes, many ask this question, not knowing that it is almost irrelevant. Getting your license is only the beginning. The question that I ask in return. Is, “What can you comfortably budget per month, on flying?”.
That’s the number that is important to being able to fly regularly to maintain proficiency. The license is only the first expense in a lifetime commitment. Think in the long term to decide if flying s for you.
Great point! Cheers
Great point. Flying is both a time AND financial investment/commitment. I have two small kids and a demanding full time job, so currently i can't afford flying for fun, time-wise, even though i can finance it easily. But as soon as they grow up a bit, i am definitely getting back into the cockpit. Cheers!
Hi guys. I am 61 years old and I fly in Argentina (70km from Buenos Aires). Here the glider pilot course consists of approximately 50 flights (depending on the ability of the student, in my case there were 30). The last 10 were ¨solo flights¨ Each flight costs approximately USD 20 (Instructor and glider included). Once the license is obtained, each airplane tow up to the height of 500 meters costs approximately USD 15. The club membership is around USD10/month. the registration to the club is USD300 (only once). In the summer season, a single fee is paid for the right to use flight equipment (gliders) of approximately USD100. I understand that there should be no place in the world where it is cheaper to fly (and other things...)
Not bad at all!
Looks very cheap indeed , must be heavely subsidised .
Fantastic thumbnail Tim! Great video too, good to see some footage from our new DG1001 😃
Awesome eh
Here in the Czech Republic, full training one the glider costs 1600 - 2400 Euro. There are many aero clubs, sport flying has a great tradition here. :-)
Well, there's the cost of going solo, which is the first step towards getting licensed, and what you've covered here. There's the cost of getting licensed on top of that, which here is 20 solos with check-flights interspersed, and then your flight exam (usually 2 flights). There's ground school (15-30 hours, only $200 here), and your written exam. Then once you are licensed, you get experience soaring (staying aloft for hours vs minutes), then bronze badge, then cross-country, then you buy your own glider to fly longer and not have to reserve a club one, learn to fly in competitions, and so forth. You never stop learning to fly a glider, since you're always learning and developing better skills until it's time to hang up your bucket hat. In other words, you never stop learning to fly a glider. 🙂
Yeah it's a great point I should have mentioned, going solo is just the first step, but it gets a bit hard to say how much the rest will cost. I'll let you know if it ever stops!
Costs have shot up way higher than inflation. In the UK we have courses, for which you get temporary membership, so there is no joining fee and no per hour hire. In my day (not so long ago) I went solo for the total cost of £500 - a bargain. Since then the price of fuel, gliders, tow planes and general equipment/insurance have risen exponentially. It used to be that gliding was a small fraction of the cost of power flying but not any longer. My advice to beginners is to go on a course at an airfield with winches - it is MUCH cheaper. Take a five day "holiday" course and you might just get to solo if you have ability. Oh, and find a good, calm instructor who doesn't shout! Worry about joining the club after solo, not before.
Good advice re finding a winch club for training!
Brits got their Brexit !!!
It's worth noting that there is a lot the student can do to make the process more efficient and save money. Be responsible and proactive your own learning. Study, study, study. The more you pre-visualize what needs to happen in the glider, the less instructor time you will need and the more ready you will be to make sense of what your instructor is telling you. You should be able to pass the written test before your first lesson (IMO). Get Condor2, it's cheaper than a single lesson, so if it saves you at least one lesson then it's paid for itself. Don't just putz around with Condor, set up some disciplined lessons. Be careful of forming bad habits in Condor, real flying and instruction will trump that. Study the operating manual for the glider you will train in. You should know the speeds and how to interpret the polar before you get into it. Listen to radio calls before you have to do them. I watched about 200 gliding videos before I got in one. Be an active student, request clarification if you're not 100% getting the idea on something. Practice, practice, practice in that flight simulator between the ears. My instructor likes to say 'What is the next thing you need to know? Answer: The next 3 things you need to do'. A lot of flying is knowing without thinking what you need to do next. Preparation, preparation, preparation.
I agree with the use of Condor, especially with the caveat that it's used with at least some instructor or experienced pilot oversight, as you could learn some bad habits. The other idea, which we're about to introduce in our club, is assigning mentors to new students; a buddy who'll monitor and encourage.
here in austria we are at an international airport and we can only use AETO (aerotow) as launch option which makes flying a bit more expensive. the good side is you learn how to fly and interact at an airport also including radiocalls and airport procedures. plus you get some groundservices done for you that clubs usually have to do on their own.
plus if you get into thermal flying and stay in the air longer it will get cheaper as well
Beside the regulations it seems to me that every club has its own policy/standard regarding the training you need before doing your first solo flight, or before carrying someone onboard.
In our club we pay €550 anual fee, and part of it is released for flying based on how helpful you are to maintain the club (fair enough to me).
Then we pay 33€/h and 10€/winch. Normally you need about 40 to 50 circuits and about 15 hours for the first solo. Altogether it is about €2000 distributed in two seasons, but you can do it in one year if you have enough free time.
Comparatively, learning to fly a propellor airplane costs 150€/h!
It was around 2000 USD for me to solo last year in Moscow. The number of circuits however is dramatically higher - 57!
I have an urge to say it worths every cent spent.
Yeah agreed!
Was that at Shevlino? I drove out and spent a day there in 2017 when I was living in Moscow. Sadly, it seemed like it was too hard to get permission to fly solo in Russia (as an already licensed foreigner who doesn't speak much Russian). I was amused that the number of Blanik (which is what I trained in in NZ in the 1980s) was exceeded only by the number of Wilga, most of them in some state of disassembly. I've had a few tows behind one of those in NZ, but I think there is only one.
@@BruceHoult , they have moved from Shevlino to Schekino in 2018, but the crew and the fleet are the same. Yeah, Blanik will always be in my heart as it is the aircraft I went solo for the first time in my life, unforgettable experience. Unfortunately we do not have a lot of people who care working in our regulator. According to official reports zero pilots got the license in the last 4 years. Luckily it does not stop people from learning to fly. I hope it will change one day. It is a complex problem and definitely not the first priority nowadays =(
@@baschlykoff oh, that's a bit further from the city. I remember they told me there was going to be a problem flying from Shevlino during the whole summer of the World Cup. Was Schekino enough further from the city? I see it's the other side of the lake, and only 7 km flying from Shevlino.
@@BruceHoult It is 15 minutes further, but it is not dramatic. You have an option to stay at the airfield in a hostel (which is cheap) or in your tent (which is free).
Glider Club Hamburg-Boberg: 180 Euro per Quarter (720 Euros per year). Winch: 4,50 Euro per launch; cost for flightminute depends on plane (35 cents for an ASK21). Payback-System for working hours in the winter time. We are a certified flight school. For club members there a no extra fees for flights with instuctors ect. Our planes; 2 x ASK21, 2x SZD- 51 Junior, 2x LS-4b, Discus-2b, Discus-2c FES, Duo Discus XL, Duo Discus XLT, Arcus T, SF-25C Rotax Falke, Super Dimona, Romoqueur DR 400, Breezer B400-6.
Not bad!
The best is: We have an early and late shift roster. 09:00-14:00 /14:00 - 19:00. You don't have to spend the whole day on the airfield like in many others clubs. Very familiy friendly.
Henry: I tried to introduce a duty roster for the tow pilots in my US club and almost had a riot on my hands! We haven’t had a ‘no-flying’ day due to a lack of tow pilots but it is always a struggle to get one while not burning out the one or two who are always willing to jump in.
@@ulin4226 "...almost had a riot on my hands" Hahaha, you made my day! It seems to be all the same around the globe :-D This two shift roster gave us some peace. Every club member starts the season (April) with 0 points. At the end of the season (October) the number must be 50. For every job you get points. For example: Winch driver in April-May early shift 3 points, Winch driver June/july late shift 6 points.
did my first flight a bit more than a month ago. and yeah youre right, there is really no point of watching other people fly. there is no adrenaline. you have no control about the glider, where you look and so on. and the most important of all: to have memories and stories to tell. you cannot just tell someone "oh i watched someone on youtube gliding", why just not "oh yeah btw i became a glider pilot now and i did this and that". and its just boring to watch other people fly
Great coverage of the fundamentals tim, thank you 👍 ask a local driving instructor for a similar set of numbers, it would be a great comparison for youngsters
I pay about 500-1000€ more for my drivers license than i did for gliding...
I was lucky enough to be in the air cadets in England when I was younger for years and I got myself on a gliding course for a week so the course didn’t actually cost me apart from the monthly subs of £2 plus getting down there I did it at raf west milling and I went all the way to solo couldn afford when I was 16 to continue and finish off to a full glider pilot but I will never forget when you go solo for the first time it’s the best feeling in the world when your alone.
It sure is, I remember thinking “I can’t believe they let me do this “ haha
Great content ..love your vids always exciting to watch and very informative .... been following you for a while ,I am from Te Awamutu and been thinking the cost would be more than I could afford .But not now ....this last post has shown that it is something I can do and do with a passion as I have always been a dream to fly gliders ...I do have some flying experience so I hoping my age at 60 is not a issue ...and Im fit and healthy lol
Cheers Much appreciate all the time and effort you do to put up your content
Roger
Awesome thanks Roger, come try it out sometime at our club!
I'm 62 and getting a glider add-on rating (US). No worries.
Great video Tim, loved the beach location. Where is that? I did my ticket to first solo over a week years ago at Paraparaumu, but then had to return to Asia for work and in Singapore, there are no gliding clubs! I was never quite sure where I would have gone with gliding after achieving solo. It would be great to see a post-solo where to from here video to fill in the gap between solo and those distance awards that seem to be distant milestones to a newbie. Chur, Jeff
Hey yeah the after solo bit is a great question, and would be worth making a video on! Cheers
Good info. Thanks. I did my PPL first, then glider to long ago to remember what it cost.
In AUS, at my club its about $60 Aud for a tow to 2000ft AGL, $300 Aud for all memberships and insurance, $30-$40 Aud an hour depending on glider. After the first 3 hours the glider hire is free.
That sounds about the same as NZ, cheers!
Prices fairly similar here in the UK. My club does both winches and aerotows, which is handy. But ten hours to solo, twenty or so flights? Seems a bit optimistic. And the costs don't stop when you've reached that stage!
Yeah of course it varies, but that is possible, those numbers are roughly what I did
@@PureGlide oh, I don't doubt it. But I suspect you were a quicker learner than most.
Firstly, love the content, it's very encouraging and entertaining to watch! Can't ask for more then that when it's free. Secondly, can you do a follow-up video to this as it relates to buying your first glider in NZ and the costs of owning said glider. That's probably two video's worth of idea's as I imagine buying your first glider has a lot of variables involved. Looking forward to taking the first step to becoming a glider pilot. Cheers
Awesome, thank you! Yeah good idea, I have been thinking about a 'buying a glider' video
Oh, btw. polarized glasses - they can be polarized, just with the circular manner - they works awesome when looking at the clouds
I didn’t go into it, but they conflict with some instruments. A whole video in itself
@@PureGlide liquid crystal ones in radios for example don't work with regular ones, with just single polarity, but they are fine with circular (I'm using those and I see radio clearly)
I went solo in 1973 from a military airfield near Dublin Ireland using a reverse auto tow. This was where the tow car drove towards the glider pulling about 6,000' of high tensile steel wire around a fixed pulley, giving quite high launches.
I'm wondering why you said no poloroid glasses?
Me too - was wondering if it might have to do with ghost patterns in the plexiglass like you get in a car when you tilt your head or look through the sunroof.
this depends though, my club in the netherlands only charges about 78 euro per month all in, except for towing which is actually a bit cheaper than what you said, for us its only 30 euros per 500m and not 37. So cost to get solo is about a 1000 euro, adding about 180 for insurance to get solo and fly for a full year.
in Germany near cologne we pay 350€ membership fees, 6€ per winch launch, 38€ for a tow to 600m, 12€ per hour for the glider and you have to do 30h of maintanence
Is there a way to avoid the maintenance thing ? By maybe giving more financial support to the club, as I am usually quite busy. Asking this as I don't live far from Cologne and looking to join a club
Yeah sure but you have to pay 15€ per hour
Not just the money, but the time. Not something you just do for a few weeks in the summer.
True that! Time is the most common reason people don’t stick to gliding
Our club is 1000 dollars a year but 40 dollars for a 3000 foot tow and thats it. Instructors dont cost anything planes don't and the land doesn't.
It appears to me that you sre a genius, Tim.
Very low number of flights you needed, especially since I understand that you not at all startet as a teenager.
Have had my first 13 sniffer flights - with 53 - I lesrned that I'd need age + 35 flights for soloing APPROXIMATELY in glidepath vicinity of club's airfield...
I think I quit the idea of becoming a glider pilot given the fact that age likely manifests in eysight, at least 3 years to go for the license - for me, since I am obviously not over-talented - and also the costs and perspectives after the license gain...
Thank you very much for the extra motivation to try it out, Tom, eventually found a club just having bought an ASK21 -B (!!!) in which I suit as 198cm man.
Lessons learnt: Start early in your years with gliderpiloting, if you can!
Save and happy landings!!!
Yes agreed! Earlier the better, it is definitely easier to learn faster when younger
Just wanted to thank you
I fly near Frankfurt, Germany. I started to glide back in Summer 2020 after corona restrictions were lifted for us. I flew my first solo at 69 Flights and around 11 Hours of flight time. At our club, when we fly locally we don't pay for glider time or for winch launches, we only pay a yearly fee of 618EUR/ 750 NZ$, and that's it. We are one of the cheapest clubs around, but we have an amazingly low-price fleet. So, how expensive was it all in all? Until my solo 1000 EUR... 618EUR yearly+ 250EUR entry + additional launches at other clubs. Now that I had my license I had flown 211 flights at 51:11 Hours. I Paid three years of fees of 3x618 EUR, 250 EUR entry fee, 300 EUR for 2:22 Hours of tow time, and an additional fee of around 300 EUR for the winch launch not conducted at our airport. In total, I paid around 2.800 EUR, including everything except food at the airport, drinks, parties, etc.
How is that even possible to have 69 flights and 11h of flight time? That is less than 10 minutes per flight??
Thank You for letting us know
Great video, super helpful, thank you for sharing. I’ve only one glide flight (an intro flight several years ago with a superb instructor) but I’ve been considering joining a local club and commuting to the learning process.
Sorry if I missed this in the comments, but why are non-polarized lenses preferred?
Thanks again.
Hi I didn’t want to go into it in the video, but polarised glasses can conflict with the instrument displays. Also some say it can cut out crucial reflections of other aircraft which we want to see, but I’m not sure how valid that is as an argument!
I wear mirror coated polarized sunglasses. The polarization is such that I can see all LCD screens. Only if I take the glasses of and turn them 90* do the LCD displays turn black. I also don’t see any ‘stress areas’ in the canopy. Since the coating is specifically a ‘blue blocker’, it helps me spot other gliders as the glare is much reduced. Very relaxing for the eyes.
Maybe later in life but for now that would be an arm and a leg.
I just finished my SPL in Czechia and I spent around 1500$ with all the costs of theoretical and practical exams etc. Im actually surprised by these prices, our aeroclub has price of 10€ per hour and 1 minute of aerotow costs around 3€, so tow to 1000 feet is usually about 10-12 €, so these prices in the video really surprised me
What hasn’t been said is the downsides to gliding. The gliding club I was a member of expected you to stay there the entire Saturday on Sunday pushing other gliders around and retrieving the winch cable. What made me leave the gliding scene was, I was expected to be there all day just to get x3 two minute flights in the circuit (if you didn’t get a thermal, which is most of the time in winter) and the senior members would expect me to do all the donkey work while they stood there and watched from the side with their clipboard and radio.
At least with powered flying you can turn up, fly for an hour, then go home.
Yeah very true, and some clubs are better than others in that regard. All our members have to help in one way or another. Our club has a roster, it's usually one day every month or so. Pushing gliders around is up to whoever is flying them! And you can usually go for a fly on your helping day too. I'm an instructor, so I'm rostered on for that every month. Because most clubs are non-profit, everyone has to volunteer otherwise it just doesn't work. However there are some commercial glider training operations around the world that do offer the 'turn up, fly and leave', but you pay for that service...
@@PureGlide Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind helping out. But it annoyed me when some helped out more than others. I pretty much quit after a senior guy would tell me to drag a glider back while he stood there and do absolutely nothing. That’s not how to treat new and young members, especially when I was young enough to think I could be doing something else / other sports that weekend instead.
I got remarkably lucky when I learned c1990. I found a club that charged £2 a winch launch and on their flying site 1600-2000ft were quite common. I started at summers end, soloed in November, stuck at it through winter, had Bronze by next summer, and managed to do my Silver badge flights that summer. Total of around 15 hrs flying hours. I wrote a 3 part article for a model magazine on learning to fly fullsize (I was already a model flyer) and earned £360 for doing that. I have in my head (though it was a long time ago) that my total flying cost was around £500. If so, that would make the net cost around £140. Whatever, it was very cheap and probably never to be repeated ha ha.
Appreciate the video. Any suggestions for Auckland area clubs?
Yeah Drury gliding club or Whenuapai club. We also have a few Auckland people come and fly at Matamata. Cheers!
It’s far cheaper than I thought it would be. Unfortunately there’s only one or two clubs in my state here in the US and they’re both a 2+hr drive away.
Worth it! haha we have people drive 1-2 hours to clubs, it's not unheard of, especially if they have accomodation for the weekend. Cheers!
Thanks for such great content. I’m in Australia and looking into options to start a course. If you don’t mind me asking.. what about flying with a passenger? Do you need any special license or extra requirement? Once you start flying I guess it’s natural wanting to take your friends/partner for flights with you. 😁 Thanks again. 🙏🏼
Hi in New Zealand, we have to complete our glider pilot license, then you can take passengers. It's very common to take family up for a flight once you get your license as you can imagine! I assume it's similar rules in Australia.
@@PureGlide Thanks a lot for your prompt response. Keep up the good work. ;)
Regarding membership fees you have some clubs that have low annual fees and they charge you by the minute when flying, and some other clubs they charge a higher annual fee, but no extra when flying (so you don't fly looking at your watch). The club where I was had the latter modality, at the time around EUR950 per year, EUR60 per towing at 600m but nothing extra per flight time.
Great information. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
at my club its around 800/900 euros a year with unlimited winch launches and free club glider rent
Not bad! So essentially you have a compulsory glider hire scheme built into your membership fee
NZ $300, 4h, 20 flights and one week 🙈 consolidate your learning, use a gopro, come prepared and try learn intensively.
When I say be prepared I mean be prepared, do the study, watch your gopro videos back every single night, use visualisation techniques and buy a pure glide bucket hat.
Those are the secrets to success!
Flying gliders is way cheaper than I anticipated.
I think, up until my first solo I paid less than 1000 Euro. We do winch launching and have a flat monthly fee regardless of how many launches we do.
That's an interesting idea having a flat fee for launching! cheers
Do you have any Youth schemes i.e. Youthglide? May be worth mentioning - often significantly reduces cost or air cadets/ armed forces club. I learnt to fly at a RAFGSA club many years ago - it was way cheaper than a 'civilian' club, even though I had over 300 winch launches before I went solo (at 16 -min age back then) - we used to run all the winches and vehicles on the fuel that used to drip out of Lightnings.......
Yeah we do, I mentioned our club has youth prices in the video
@@PureGlide sorry, must not be paying full attention..... :-)
I am starting to learn gliding in France right and the cost per flight is much lower than that. The number of flight required to get your licence, however, is much higher. Maybe you were more skilled than most people.
Interesting! yes it also depends if there is any sports funding provided? France typically has very good sports funding available to gliding from what I understand. And yes it can vary a lot as to how long it takes to gain your full gliding licence.
@@PureGlide No the club is not funded by the state, only the training of younger ones is. But absolutely everyone is voluntary, including the instructors and the tow pilots.
Denmark - my club.
Winch launch 6 euro
Tow to 1500ft 35 euro
Glider rent School Twin astir 16 euro pr hour, first 10 minutes free. (perfect for student pilots)
mothly membership in the club 86 euro
In my old club you paid 1350Euros a year and had free flying in the club fleet (Arcus t, Discus 2bt, Discus 2ct)
Very cheap..
I like the Marske flying wing gliders don't see many of them around. Marskeaircraft
But in each and every of your videos (which I like a lot) you keep saying it’s all about experience to take the right decisions! So solo stage is not sufficient. Safe solo stage is much farther isn’t it?
I tried to learn when I was 45 or so. I loved the idea but it freaked me too much. Especially the towing (too scared to take the tow plane down) and also spiraling up into thermals banking 45 degrees. The flight itself is a bliss.
Yeah it's very tricky to know when to send students solo. Generally we want to ensure they can handle any situation thrown at them, e.g. a spin, thermalling, other aircraft etc. And it's why you start off going solo on calm days without much other traffic, to reduce the number of factors, so you don't need so much experience when starting. Cheers!
Here in Santiago chile including club membership. 11000 usd. 🤦🏻sadly this is the only gliding club open in chile.
11.000 USD??? What? Is that "all you can eat"? Unlimted winch lauches, aerotows, flightminutes?
@@henryluebberstedt7819 60 launch (aerotows) + instruction + club membership, this if you are older than 40 if not you have to pay it when you become 40.
Just started theory lessons today!
Awesome have fun!
wonderful info. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
So on the other side of the earth(Finland, 2021 season) Took me about 3000€ to get the license, of which 2200€ are for the training flights, (60 of your first flights, doesn't matter duo or solo. I flew my first solo on my 31:st flight after about 8.5h of time in the air), everything else is for theory, exams etc.
After those 60 flights at least in our club, you can either pay 15€(Winch launch) or about 35€(Airplane launch, 500m/around 1700-1800ft by quick math) + hiring the glider depends on the glider itself(starting from like 9€ per hour for the K-8B and ending at sub 30€ at the best gliders we have) + yearly about 120-140€ depending on your age.
Or you can buy that "whole year package", which is 650€ for under 25 years olds and was it 900 or 950 for over 25 years olds. With those yearly 120-140€ on top of that. And that includes unlimited flight time, winch launches, landings(we don't have a landing fee in our club because we are also the main maintanance group of the field, on other fields landing fee is usually also only for SEP and larger), but you do have to pay if you want an airplane launch.
So starting would be around 3000-4000€ depending on a club, and then it's around 800-1500€ a year depending on the club, launch type, amount of flying(not all clubs have this whole season package) etc.
And you also can make up some of that money by operating the winch on some occasions.
Hey thanks for sharing!
I remember $20 for 3 1000 foot tows to practice landings.
In Aus I'm paying in AUD of course but it's $620 for membership per year, $400 per year Glider association. $8 per min Tow, $1.30 - $1.50 for Glider. $3 ground fee per flying day. What do you reckon?
Not far off our costs too, we’ve had a slight price bump since I made this video. The real trick is to reduce glider time costs if they have a bulk purchase scheme… nothing worse than feeling like you have to head back because you’re being charged by the minute!
I've been Glidering in my Glider with my fellow Gliderers . . Thermalling in the Thermals on money that should be Her's . . London UK , Membership £750 . . Aerotow 2000ft £40 . . Winch Launch £10 . . K21 hire 75p per min . . aprox.
Was over a grand in us to join. 40 dollar tow fees.
I pay 3€ which is 5,40NZ $ per winch launch at our glider club in germany
It is almost free compared to typical single-engine PPL.
Yeah pretty much!
That's really cheap here local glider company it's $9-12k to go from nothing to having a PPL glider rating.
Hi keep in mind that was to solo only, not a full licence. Really about ⅓ of the way to a full glider license
Nice video! What is wrong with polarized sunglasses?
Primarily instruments can use LCD and LED panels that blank out if the angles are wrong and you’re wearing polarised glasses
Is there a gliding club in Pauanui as I can’t find anything listed local there to start learning one day. Will try to put away 3k tho. Only know of scenic double there in summer a few years ago. Great channel and content btw.
Haha if I landed my glider here there would be! Just chillaxing at the beach…
I've wanted to do this for almost fifty years. Still haven't found the combination of a local club, money, and spare time. Retirement coming up, and my overall health and vision are still quite good, but I'm going to be broke again -- maybe a part-time retirement job. Then I have to get a waiver from my partner, who has already vetoed hang gliding...
Good luck! A few hurdles :) another option is to join a club but not do all the training, just go out for the occasional flight with an instructor. Some is better than none ?!
@@PureGlide Well, after posting above, I searched out the only local glider club. Good news is, for members, instruction and glider rental are free. Bad news is US$1000 to join and US$600 a year membership (plus SSA membership another US$75) -- so I presume that's US$1675 up front before any instruction. Tow fees are about normal, and it looks like they own their airfield, so no landing fees.
Not impossible, that's a couple income tax refunds for the first year (and going every weekend, I ought to be able to get my solo or even full license in a year) -- but I won't get tax refunds after I retire.
They do "day membership" for US$100 for a weekend, includes on 3000 foot tow and glider rental, additional tows at regular rate, which would be a decent deal if one already has a solo certificate and wants to fly a few weekends a year, but it looks like the same US$1800-2000 to get to solo -- but with most of the money up front.
For my life vicarious, it is much cheaper and less demanding mentally to watch the mad people do their stuff on RUclips and occasionally look down on the plebs from a steep hill. If I want to be among the clouds I have a boil-up for a cuppa and observe the kettle prior to it switching off automatically when it has done its stuff.
I've gone from 123kg back down to 112kg, so to celebrate I'll by buying your funny hat when I reach under 110kg and I might make my way up to Benalla to give it a go. :)
Good to hear Glenn :)
_Love a wealthy woman and the pretty plane she flies._
_If you think this sounds confusing, you should see it through my eyes._
Jimmy Buffett
Anyone who balks at these prices needs to investigate powered flight lessons. These costs are a downright "bahgin." (NZ-speak)
only 22 circuits + 9 "other' flights to go solo? Kudos (and I am watching on Sat morning because it's raining)
Thanks! Sorry to hear about the rain
Cheaper than kitting out and joining a golf club here for 1 year in England.
Hey Tim.... just wondering what happened to my T Shirt.
Hi I’ll look into it and flick you an email!
Have you got a deal going on funny hats?
Always!
I tired training las year and did my fist 10 starts and landing in an AKS13. The costs were ok but for other things make me wonder if it is right for me. First I got sick on 40% of the flights. I did not have to throw up but it was unpleasant. The second thing is the time commitment. It is not like any other sport where you go for an hour in the evening. It is a 7:00 - 20:00 Day for me and only really makes sense if you commit 2/3 of your weekends.
I am not sure yet if I will continue that hobby.
Sorry to hear! Yeah the motion sickness can be a big problem. Some do get over it with time. Others learn to control it with some non-drowsy drugs. And yeah time can be a big issue too. Once you've done your training it is less of an issue, just go out when you want to. Good luck, cheers
@@PureGlide Thank you for your encouraging words :-)
Many thanks
You are welcome
Rich mans sport.
I have a rating, got it in the late 80's.
It cost about the same as a couple of rounds of golf every week.
What about cost of instructors ? I’m in PNW region of US.
In New Zealand, UK, and Australia, most instructors are volunteers. There are some commercial operations around with commercial instructors (like Milan at Kahu Soaring in New Zealand). Not sure about the US sorry, I suspect clubs are volunteers there too.
Would you recommend gliding in kodiak alaska ?
Why non-polarised sunglasses?
Why non polarized sunglasses?
So they don’t conflict with the LCD instrumentation in the cockpit.
Just wondering whether any use is made of simulators to make training quicker now?
Yeah absolutely, I mention that in my video about simulators!
Need to ditch that expensive old Pawnee and get a Eurofox - really cheapened aerotows in the UK............... the 915 engined Eurofox outperforms the Pawnee..
Agreed! A new tow plane is our next purchase no doubt
Comparing to the UK that's a bargain 😊
Hi, I want to learn gliding but there are no clubs here. Assuming your club is in New Zealand and I pay 1400 USD for just one month will you help me to learn it in just a month cause I am free this summer.
Hi sorry I can’t instruct commercially, as I don’t have the right license, or time to do it. Best bet is to go to a country that has commercial training, some clubs in Australia or Europe can do that I think. Good luck!
Too expensive for just about everybody...
Compared to say flying FPV quadcopters, which that kind of money would buy top of the line premium equipment... and a lot of it... so you can fly all you want for the rest of your life thereafter for free. If you really want to fly cheaply though, the simulator is the way to go. Assuming you already have a home computer, you can be up in the sky fast and fly around and crash all you want forever... for under $200 for a controller and software. Simulators really are the way to fly all your heart ever desires safely... for free... for ever. Which is why gliding and private aviation is in nosedive decline.
How can I become a Glider towing pilot please tell me and the total cost
Hi you generally need tail dragger time, no idea how long it takes to train up sorry!
@@PureGlide the cost?
why non polarized sun glasses?
Good question, basically polarized glasses have two issues:
1) Instruments and displays might not be readable depending on their polarisation angle, they can cancel each other out.
2) they reduce the chance of glints off other aircraft.
this seems very affordable
How Much would cost to create a fling club. There is plenty of mad people here en chile. 🤣
Perfect! it's more about finding an aircraft, a way to launch, an airfield and satisfying the legal requirements. So a bit of funding would be good, but if you set up a winching operation it wouldn't cost too much.
Really nice video. Unfortunately, most people still tend to think gliding is really expensive and only for the "elite" while in reality, it's very affordable
It is really cheap compared to general aviation!
Yeah it’s not bad really!
TLDR - A fortune :D