Glider Flying

[drunkenbeagle]

That must be a commcerial operation. Joining a club is cheaper. My club you only pay for the tow once a member. 3000=$25. No glider rental fee or anything. You just pay $500 a year membership fee. Some people might say $500 is alot for a membership. But if you fly say 50 times during the year all to 3000. Thats $1250 in tows and another 500 for the membership to put it at 1750 for the year. Say you only stay up a hour each time. That comes out to 35 a hour.

Very similar to my club, our membership is slightly cheaper. It is not a stretch at all to fly for less than $30/ hour.

 

[Nihon_Ni]

That must be a commcerial operation. Joining a club is cheaper. My club you only pay for the tow once a member. 3000=$25. No glider rental fee or anything. You just pay $500 a year membership fee. Some people might say $500 is alot for a membership. But if you fly say 50 times during the year all to 3000. Thats $1250 in tows and another 500 for the membership to put it at 1750 for the year. Say you only stay up a hour each time. That comes out to 35 a hour.

Yes, it's a commercial operation. There aren't any glider operations near my home, so for me it makes more sense to rent than join a club. I only made 5 flights this year, but that's all my travel schedule would allow. (I live in Japan and soar in Hawaii.)

Joining a club would be great for timebuilders, even at a $500 a year -- if you flew 50 hrs that's only $10/hr.

 

[A150K]

Soaring, in addition to making you a better pilot, can also be a cost effective way to build hours towards that commercial cert, if you are not in a big hurry.

Thing is, minus a few XCs, I'm already pretty close to comm minimums (thanks to the cheap C150 club I'm part of, I was able to fly like crazy this past summer after earning my PPL in May, as it stands now I'm probably 1/2 way through my IR). Still, soaring is something I am going to get into one day.