How to learn to fly at our club, and what’s available to help you.
Training and Training Resources
Your gliding training and learning journey begins with your first flight and will end with your final flight, for some people that won’t happen until they are in their 90s!
From now on, your training will broadly fall into three areas:
- Flying: in the air, or the club’s simulator
- Theory: on the ground, both taught and self-led
- Ground: handling aircraft; how to prepare, use, clean and store all the equipment; launchpoint tasks etc.
Gliding is a sport for lifelong learners, because there is always some technique, terrain, site or weather condition to learn about.
A really good resource for a beginner is the Student Pilot Manual published by the BGA. It’s full of excellent illustrations and is directly relatable to the course of instruction you’ll be following. You can buy it from the club office or from the BGA here.
There are many books and theories, plus many videos online. There are plenty of good pilots to listen to about what and how they glide. The quiet ones are the ones to keep an ear out for – they are the ones who quietly flew to some cathedral or reservoir hundreds of miles away because the conditions looked good that way and they fancied it. This opens up so many questions: what made you think ‘it looked good that way’? How did you know? Were you looking at the ground features or the clouds? How did you get round that weird corner of airspace? What was your favourite part of the flight? And so on…
But where to start, when there is so much?
Relax, there is no rush. If you haven’t already had your first flights you will soon be speaking to one of the instructors who will explain how training works at our club. Generally, whichever stage you are at over the coming years, ask your instructors what resources will help support your learning.
For now, the BGA webpage to glance at is: https://members.gliding.co.uk/pilotinformation/ This has links to everything, except some of the advanced sailplane racing training. It is rich with resources to suit any of the several thousand glider pilots in the UK. For you right now, it includes a pilot development pathway, which will give you an overview of the possibilities.
Generally the appropriate theory training will accompany your flying training. Your ground training will be carried out by the duty instructors or other suitably-qualified person (such as the Launch Marshal). Alternatively – or additionally – theory training is available through pre-recorded videos and online sessions some evenings.
Gliding is a great place for the inquisitive and if you ever feel short of information, ask anyone who looks friendly. If they don’t know, they will probably know the right person for you to ask.
Gliding App
At Cambridge Gliding Club we use Gliding App to:
- Manage and record all flights made at the airfield
- To keep your training records and qualifications
- To register who is doing what on the airfield
There’s no great urgency for you to delve into GA (as it’s known), but as you progress through your training you will want to refer to it to follow your progress through the syllabus, see what the last instructor wrote about you (!), and eventually upload your medical and your pilot’s license!
You will receive an email inviting you to sign up to the account we created for you when you joined. It’s important that you use the link in the email to activate the account and set an appropriate password for it. Subsequently you can access GA through this link: http://cgc.gliding.app
Once you’ve logged in, you will be able to explore the documentation which is provided under ‘documents’ in the menu on the left hand side. In particular, you may find it useful to install it on your mobile device; detailed instructions are provided for this.
Your development as a pilot
As a beginner, your main goal is to ‘go solo’. To achieve this you’ll need to satisfy your instructors that you can safely pilot the aircraft in any situation you might encounter in the area, that you have sufficient technical understanding of what to do and why, and that you satisfy any formal requirements for flying solo. (In the case of members under the age of 18, you will also need the permission of a parent or guardian).
However – as my own instructor said to me on the day I went solo – “Now your training really begins”. There’s much more to learn before you achieve the next goal of gaining your SPL – your Sailplane Pilot’s Licence. This license is issued by the Civil Aviation Authority and comes in the same format as (for example) an airline pilot’s license (but note that it doesn’t entitle you to fly an airliner…). To gain your SPL you will need more time in the air and further refinements to your flying, but also a significant amount of ground training in things like air law, navigation, flight computers, field landings – things you need to know before you fly cross-country.
Don’t expect to be ‘fed’ the things you need to know. To take the best advantage of the opportunities offered, present yourself in front of an instructor and say something like “I’d like to start the landing exercises today. I’ve read the section in the student pilot manual and think I understand it. I’ve had a few demonstrations during previous flights and I think I’m ready to try it myself”. Taking the initiative in your flying training is the best approach.
The syllabus
No, not curdled cream – it’s what you need to learn. The SPL mandates a syllabus for you to complete before you go solo, and then before you gain your license. Your instructors will choose items from that syllabus to cover on a particular day given your experience, the topics you’re working on, and the weather conditions. They’ll also take into account what other instructors have said about your flying. The syllabus and your progress against it are recorded in Gliding App, and you can look at it at any time.
Badges
The BGA and FAI (World air sports federation) implement a system of badges and diplomas aimed at recognising achievements by glider pilots. For example, there are badges for height gains, flight duration, and cross-country distance.
Competition flying
There are many levels and types of competition for glider pilots. Most of them are concerned with flying fast cross-country; the organisers choose a ‘task’ (for example, fly to a particular motorway service station and back), and the pilots race around the task and hope to complete it. There are club, inter-club, regional, national and international competitions to aim for.
Aerobatics
There is a keen and growing body of members at CGC who are keen on glider aerobatics. It’s taught by particular instructors and generally during special sessions arranged for the purpose. A WhatsApp group (“CGC Aerobatics”) coordinates this flying.
Lectures
During the winter, lectures are organised. These are sometimes about particular aspects of glider flying that are thought to be of general interest, but others concern the weather or are about different types of flying altogether.
