Once you decide to learn to fly the first step is to join a club
All BGA (British Gliding Association) clubs follow a strict learning syllabus that will take you right from the earliest stages through to becoming a fully qualified glider pilot. Clubs provide training free of charge with fully qualified BGA instructors and your first target will be to fly solo. Don’t worry – you will only do this when your instructors are certain that you have all the necessary skills to safely take-off, fly and land the glider.
After you’ve successfully flown solo, there’s nothing to stop you becoming a fully qualified glider pilot by completing a training syllabus to achieve the Bronze and Cross-Country endorsements by demonstrating both practical competence and theoretical knowledge.
You will then qualify for a Sailplane Pilot’s Licence, roughly equivalent to a power pilot's PPL. The specialist training will equip you with the skills to make informed decisions about your planned flying, navigate cross country and deal with unusual situations, such as landing away from the airfield on farmland or other open space. Once you are a fully licensed pilot, qualified to fly anywhere in Europe, the sky really is the limit and, depending on your personal aspirations, you can decide to take advantage of further specialised coaching to develop, for example, into long-distance cross-country flying, participation in national and international competitions or even glider aerobatics. You may also choose to become an instructor who will train the next generation of pilots.
IS IT FOR YOU?
Gliding is a unique sport, once you've learned to fly safely you can decide what level you take your sport to, be it a gentle and relaxing local flight and see how long you can stay in the air, or something more challenging like a cross country flight, the choice is yours. There are formal targets and goals if you want them but equally many members just fly for the joy of it or challenge each other to local tasks.
Here at Shalbourne we operate all yearr round although our flight times reduce in winter when there are no thermals to keep our gliders aloft but we also have a ridge in front of the site which in certain wind conditions provides consistent lift and extended flying times.
Once you decide to learn to fly the first step is to join a club, our club.
LEARNING IS FUN
Our vastly experienced, BGA qualified, instructors volunteer their time to impart their knowledge and skills to people of all ages and backgrounds who want to learn to fly in gliders.
Once you join our club you can take your learning at a pace that suits your personality and your lifestyle. There is no pressure to achieve certain goals in fixed timescales: some new pilots get through the initial syllabus in a few months and solo in the same season in which they started. Others may take a couple of years or even decide that they love flying but never want to solo. All are good choices.
Whichever route you choose, learning involves soaring above the beautiful Wiltshire countryside and gaining knowledge of how to read the skies and thereby harness the awesome power of the atmosphere.
