Ultralights are dangerous.
Sailplanes far less so. There are very few accidents at all with sailplanes let alone fatalities.
Many of the sailplane pilots in Ontario are professional pilots there to actually get a chance to fly as opposed to driving the bus in a wide body.
Guys like Scully in the Hudson and the Gimli Glider captain who saved so many lives when the 757 ran out of fuel rely on their skills enhanced by their sailplane background.
I found light plane flying pretty boring and noisy compared to soaring where every flight is an aerobatic delight.....motorcycling in 3 dimensions.
The difference between slabbing the 401 to get somewhere versus riding PA144 for pure joy of it.
Because of the club set up, all the training is free. ....you pay your annual club fees ( $700ish ) plus annual insurance arranged by the national body ( $300 annually when I was flying ).
These are the current club rates for York Soaring
To get to solo - once you pay your club fees
Thirty (30) flights in an ASK21. Cost includes tow and flight time. $1,500.00
Then maybe another 10 observed solo flights to get your licence.
A tow to 2,000' is $60 and up to an hour flying at a dollar a minute.
Now you will be expected to perform club duties. unstacking hanger and restacking, wing running, retrieving planes back to the flight line. Instructing and tow pilots are unpaid club members.
The club house is nice - it's a great community and there are social events.
Once solo you can move up in planes to higher performance, do 50k cross country flights between fields and do your 5 hour endurance flight.
All that in the club environment.
After that you can move to longer cross country flights in your own plane and need a retrieve crew. Also competition flying at regional and national levels.
Advanced sailplanes are strongly engineered aircraft with incredible flying characteristics able to fly in Canada in mountain wave to airliner altitudes, stay in the air for hundreds of kilometers and do so in safety.
Airbus has an advanced experimental program now reaching 90,000'
The Perlan Project is an internationally celebrated, world record setting climate and aerospace research project.
perlanproject.org
Distances increase too
Around 2:30 a.m. Monday, record-setting glider pilot Gordon Boettger and co-pilot Bruce Campbell launched their craft into the night sky. By the time they landed, 17 hours and 25 minutes later, they had set a new record of 3,055 kilometers or 1,898 miles, the longest glider flight in history.
Right now, somewhere over northern Nevada, planes are being told by air traffic controllers to keep an eye out for a small, two-seat glider. Riding atmospheric phenomena known as mountain waves, Boettger will spend some of the time at 40,000 feet and even higher, well above the airliners...
www.wired.com
You can visit and fly at clubs around the world like Estrella in AZ
Home Page
But of course at higher cost than club flights. I've flown in France and Estrella.
It's a wonderful community to join
I'd ride the RD400 to SOSA and go play in the sky. I still visit York Soaring and hangout.
www.bramptonflightcentre.com
www.uprightaviation.com
