Yesterday I was lucky enough to take two people on their first glider flights. At two opposite ends of the spectrum: someone who really really wanted to go flying, and someone who hadn’t considered it seriously before.
Ayman had a life-long interest in aviation, including some of his career, but had never been up in a light aircraft or glider.
I’d met Ayman a couple of weeks ago, and I happened to mention that I went gliding nearby, and he was extremely keen to give it a try. We got lucky with the weather so we were able to make this ambition come true almost straight away!
We took an aerotow in our Perkoz glider (aerotow = being towed up behind a plane) up to about 4000 feet. A tow to 4000′ gives a pretty long flight for an initial trial flight — not everyone wants to fly that long for the first time, but Ayman was sure he’d love it, and he absolutely did. I asked him if it had lived up to his expectations and he said “better” and rated yesterday as “one of the top 10 days of his life”.
I also really enjoyed it! Ayman was great fun to fly with. So much fun, in fact, that we slotted in a cheeky second flight later in the day, so Ayman could experience a winch launch too.
My second flight of the day was with Krisztina. Krisztina had never had an intention to go flying, but her daughter flies with us, so Krisztina spends a fair amount of time in our comfy clubhouse. It’s got sofas and coffee, which is fine, but it’s obviously not as good as being in the sky. So over the course of a few weeks I’ve been gradually nudging Krisztina in the direction of trying gliding herself. (So have others, I’m told!)
Although Krisztina hadn’t originally intended to fly, she showed essentially no resistance to this nudging. She was pretty keen to see what her daughter has been doing all this time!
And so we went flying. This time we went up in our Puchasz glider, and we got towed behind a plane to about 3,500′.
Despite having no prior ambition to go flying, Krisztina did almost of the flying herself, except for brief periods to take photos (and of course the launch, circuit and landing).
Both flights were abour 30 minutes’ long. Despite Krisztina’s lower launch, the flight turned out to be a little longer. Even in November, there’s enough atmospheric motion to make a difference to the duration of a flight. The air was a little bumpier during the early part of the launch too, but once we got above about 1000′, it became still as a rock. I still find it fascinating to “feel” the different layers of the atmosphere.
Both Ayman and Krisztina did nearly all the flying themselves. Neither was at all nervous, and both did an especially great job of looking out for other aircraft, and of maintaining the glider’s nose-high-or-low attitude while doing some both gentle and fairly steeply banked turns. In both cases, we got as far as trying the rudder, which doesn’t always happen on the first flight. (We start with elevators and ailerons). They were both naturals.
It was very pretty yesterday. The winter weather is often very clear and crisp and we had lovely views of all the local villages.
If you live anywhere near Cambridge or Stevenage or Huntingdon, you too should come and have a go. Whether you’ve long harboured a goal to go flying, or it’s not something you’ve ever seriously considered before, yesterday was proof that anyone can have a really great time on their first flight.
If you’re looking for a Christmas present idea, we’d love to see you or your loved ones. We start the bulk of our trial flights in the spring when the weather gets a little more reliable, though as yesterday shows, occasionally we get the perfect day in the winter too!
If you’re not sure, then pencil in 13th and 14th June into your diary for our 2026 open day, where you can come and see what it’s all about.
