Glider Flying

[sherryfly]

Hello,

I am starting my pilot training in September. I want to be an airline pilot one day, and want to pursue flying as a career. I am doing flight training in college and am considering getting my glider license before I go as I feel it will help me develop stick and rudder skills. I am unsure if having an engine would change the dynamic, or basic skills for flying and was wondering if anyone who has done both could give me some advice.

Thanks for your time

[Chris M]

Having gliding experience first is a benefit but if you're only going to be doing it for one summer before heading off to school I don't know how much you'll gain from it. You do learn good skills and confidence from gliding but without a bunch of hours to really ingrain those traits I suspect it will be washed out of your head once PPL training starts.

I got my gliding and power licenses through Cadets and at our PPL course we had several students who hadn't flown gliders first. The difference in training time and ability was not significant; everyone passed their flight test at between 45 and 50 hours. My personal experience was that I had to fight a few incorrect habits going from gliders to airplanes and back - you'll find that you over-use the rudder in a powered plane after flying gliders - but that it was an overall benefit. I had a full year of gliding experience (~20 hours and 100-ish flights) when I went for my PPL.

By all means, hop in a glider and get some experience. If you haven't spent much time in small planes it'll be a great confidence booster. Just know that it won't vault you ahead of your classmates once you start flying at school.

[PilotDAR]

I think that Chris M's advice is excellent! No one will knock any flying experience you achieve, but to go out of your way to earn a glider license will not put you it's value ahead for a PPL. Yes, gliders are great for refining your stick and rudder skills, but any airplane will respond well to being flown with precise stick and rudder skills, so you're not missing a learning opportunity for stick and rudder by not flying a glider - just fly the powerplane with the same precision and attention. It's true that your instructor may not mentor the refined techniques, being content to simply see you up and down safely, but that does not mean that you cannot not focus for yourself on developing your basic hands and feet skills well. If your goal is PPL and onward, time spent training in taildraggers will demand the very most of your hands and feet skills - even more so than gliders!

[JasonE]

Gliding will give you more confidence if you ever have a forced approach. I'm pretty sure it helped me!

[ant_321]

I was an Air Cadet as well and had a glider license first. I was also a flight instructor who taught a few students with some gliding experience. In my experience the glider time helps for the first few lessons but someone with no experience will catch up pretty quickly. I still recommend flying gliders. It’s the most fun I’ve had flying. I always found it more of a sport. I’m hoping to get back into it at some point when I can find the time.

[Hugh Jasshole]

Being a accomplished glider pilot seemed to help Capt Pearson land the 67 back in 1983. That was the only time in the 67 history where the RAT was deployed.

[Hugh Jasshole]

Being an accomplished glider pilot seemed to help Capt Pearson land the 67 back in 1983. That was the only time in the 67 history where the RAT was deployed.

[AirFrame]

...you'll find that you over-use the rudder in a powered plane after flying gliders...

Keep in mind that this is quite dependent on both the glider you fly and the powered plane you transition to... And it can happen between different powered planes as well. I find I over-use all of the controls in my RV after spending a day in my father's Cessna. A lot is because the gliders are really taildraggers that require more rudder attention to fly proficiently.

If one gets their glider license first, I mean the full license not just spending a few hours in a glider and then moving to powered planes, I think the benefit is more tangible. Going from nothing to learning you have to use your feet is much more valuable than going from nothing to flying a Cessna where you rarely need to use your feet.

[pigboat]

Look at yorksoaring.com if you want to proceed. Cost will be around $3000. for most students. In the summer they can train you to be a Glider pilot in about three weeks if you proceed full time at it. In the end the experience will shorten the amount of training and time to obtain your Private License.

Good Luck

[SpeedhawkAirforce1]

This is what I did and I highly recommend it! It not only teaches awesome stick and rudder skills, but is really really fun! I find seeing aviation from as many different aspects as possible is helpful and teaches lots of different lessons. Plus, hanging out at the glider club you'll meet lots of interesting people.