LSA or gliding???

I_Money

Moderator
So I am pretty set on doing some recreational flying in the near future, and am torn between gliding or getting into the whole sport category of aircraft.

GLIDING
I like the simplicity of gliding, it looks like just enjoyably flying. What I dislike is the fact you rely on others to get airborne which at least at the local club I looked at limits to mostly weekends. Also the thought that you can have a lovely day and really feel in the mood to go flying, pay forty dollars for a tow and end up back on the ground in ten mins seems discouraging.

LSA
These look like fun airplanes to just fly around for fun. I would not require any additional checkrides and could freely go flying on afternoons as I please.They are also cheap enough affording and owning one would not be out of the question. The one I really like is the kolb, but the downside is right now finding places that rent these type of planes is tough but I can fly a 152 every now and again in the meantime.

So what are your thoughts on the options.
 
Go take a ride in a Piper Cub. Turn your LSA experience into a tail wheel endorsement. Great fun. I have been getting the glider itch myself lately. Definitely have to try that soon.
 
Why can't you do both? No need to add any certs for LSA so like you said, you're already there. And if your stick and rudder skills are up to snuff, you can do a glider add-on in two or three weekends so you're almost there as well.

On days when you want to fly but there's no lift, fly an lsa. On days when lift is good, find a site that will give you a tow (there are a bunch in socal) and stay aloft for hours for about $50.
 
Why can't you do both? No need to add any certs for LSA so like you said, you're already there. And if your stick and rudder skills are up to snuff, you can do a glider add-on in two or three weekends so you're almost there as well.

Do both. The point of LSA's is for people who can't/won't get a medical. You already have a certificate, so just stick with a 152. It will be cheaper (LSAs are pricey to rent, since there aren't many of them).

Getting the glider rating is going to take 20 or 30 flights anyway, mostly learning to fly in tow and land. Don't stress too much about the 10 minute flights - you are going to need 20 of them. Might as well do them sooner than later.

Glider CFIs are cheap, and you probably won't spend more than a few hours with one.

You'll get about 18 minutes from a 3000' tow, even with no thermals. Assuming that runs you $30, it is still cheaper than a 172. The 3 hour flight for $30 will make up for it in the long run.
 
Getting the glider rating is going to take 20 or 30 flights anyway, mostly learning to fly in tow and land. Don't stress too much about the 10 minute flights - you are going to need 20 of them. Might as well do them sooner than later.
The addon for a private pilot is a minimum of 3 hours of instruction and 10 solo flights. If your stick and rudder skills are decent, you can probably solo on your first or second day. If you put your mind to it, you could probably do a private add on over a couple of weekends.
 
Not true. The point was to develop a more affordable form of flying.

That may have been the goal, but the reality is that most LSAs rent for about what a 172 does. Since a 152 will probably rent for less than an LSA, it seems logical to stick with that if you can already fly it.

If the goal were simply cheaper operating costs, there is no reason a plane like a 152 couldn't be certified now. (i.e. the 162). The LSAs burn about the same gas as a 152. It seems to me the only advantage in certifying a plane as an LSA is for recreational/sport pilot certificates.
 
Do both. The point of LSA's is for people who can't/won't get a medical. You already have a certificate, so just stick with a 152. It will be cheaper (LSAs are pricey to rent, since there aren't many of them).
The point of LSA was not to allow people who can't/won't get a medical.
 
So I am pretty set on doing some recreational flying in the near future, and am torn between gliding or getting into the whole sport category of aircraft.

GLIDING
I like the simplicity of gliding, it looks like just enjoyably flying. What I dislike is the fact you rely on others to get airborne which at least at the local club I looked at limits to mostly weekends. Also the thought that you can have a lovely day and really feel in the mood to go flying, pay forty dollars for a tow and end up back on the ground in ten mins seems discouraging.

However, when you DO stay up for longer than ten minutes...say a couple of hours, it's pure heaven. I like that it gets rid of the (real and metaphorical) noise - all of the systems that make new ALL-GLASS! GA airplanes more like operating computers and less like flying.
 
The point of LSA was not to allow people who can't/won't get a medical.
You're right, that wasn't the stated goal. However, it seems (in my very limited experience) that that is often what it is turned into.
 
You could also fly a LSA glider. There's a little less solo experience required and you can take your check with a CFI-G who didn't sign you off for the practical in lieu of a DPE. I did just that when I got my glider ticket.

YMMV, but in my experience the most expensive CFI I've ever hired was in gliders. Learning to fly the traffic pattern is still the most expensive hour in my log book. There's no such thing as a touch and go in a glider, so each landing requires a tow to 1000 ft or so (unless you have a motorized glider, your engine is attached to a tow plane), then a short flight downwind, base and final. From takeoff to landing is about 5-6 minutes. My school charges $29 for a 1000' tow. By the time you get an hour of landing practice it all starts to add up: $290 for 10 tows, $65 for the CFI, and $35 for the glider. Fortunately, you don't need much more than an hour of that if you already know how to fly. I did my whole sport rating for about $1800 over a 4 day period. Had I gone for a commercial add-on rating (I have a CPL AS&MEL) it would have cost me about $500 more to get the 20 solo flights you need to get a commercial glider add-on. The sport rating only takes 3 solo flights for a total of 1.0 hrs. For me, a tow to 1000' that I can make last for 1 hr is about the break even point in comparing prices to my local C-172. If there's lift, it's easy to do. If there isn't any lift, I generally wait for a better day to go gliding. I have flown for 3 hrs on a 1000 ft tow once, and only landed because couldn't sit still anymore (and I had to pee).
 
Back
Top