I used to have a private license, flew 172s and 152s. I owned a Cherokee 180 for a while. A quirk in regulations let me put a few hours on a Navajo. Ownership is an expensive hobby.
I like the thought of ultra lights but they IMO aren’t for travel. I got tired of doing local scenic flights and circuits.
SOSA is Canada's premier gliding club with the largest and most modern training fleet and over 150 members. Located one hour from Downtown Toronto, Ontario we offer both beginner and advanced training programs as well as introductory experience flights for those looking to try gliding for the...
www.sosaglidingclub.com
took a break and came back to York Soaring west of Orangeville.
How Can I Get Started? Need help learning how you can get started? AND Read our Flight Instructor Assignment Guide & Process in the Students & Renters Banner, under Welcome…
No power licence - too much $$$ but flew side seat with a buddy in a small single around Ontario and into Chicago when the lakeside airport was still open.
Simpler times.
FWIW getting your solo sailplane ( 40 hours - all training and flights ) costs about $3-4k.
Easy step then to a power licence.
No power licence - too much $$$ but flew side seat with a buddy in a small single around Ontario and into Chicago when the lakeside airport was still open.
Simpler times.
FWIW getting your solo sailplane ( 40 hours - all training and flights ) costs about $3-4k.
Easy step then to a power licence.
How Can I Get Started? Need help learning how you can get started? AND Read our Flight Instructor Assignment Guide & Process in the Students & Renters Banner, under Welcome…
I got my license there ages ago when Clay Marlet managed the place. I recall him commenting they moved there when the operation got crowded out of the actual Brampton location. He went on to say they would get crowded out again. His prophecy is going to happen. Housing going up all around.
We are proud of our fleet of well maintained aircraft. We offer a variety of Cessna and Piper aircraft to fulfill your training needs. Our four seat 172 models and…
www.bramptonflightcentre.com
Heh, rates '`bought double since I flew ~20 yrs ago (now ~$200 / hr vs $100).
Upright Aviation Academy is a World Class Pilot Safety Training Center with Aerobatic Thrill/UFLY Rides in our Extra 300L, Upset Prevention & Recovery (UPRT), Emergency Manoeuvre (EMT), Pilot Confidence (PCT), and Aerobatic/Tailwheel Training - Burlington Airport, between Toronto and Niagara Falls.
www.uprightaviation.com
Way back in ~2000 I did a couple of aerobatic lessons in a Bellanca Citabria : just did a couple of loops and rolls.
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.
Admitted I'm a bit biased, I've been gliding 25 years and instructor-rated for 21 of those years, I put ultralights in the same deathtrap category as hang gliders.
Flying isn't a cheap hobby, and gliding/soaring is probably your best bang for the buck. Getting your PPL back up-to-date is only worthwhile if you can maintain currency.
Admitted I'm a bit biased, I've been gliding 25 years and instructor-rated for 21 of those years, I put ultralights in the same deathtrap category as hang gliders.
Flying isn't a cheap hobby, and gliding/soaring is probably your best bang for the buck. Getting your PPL back up-to-date is only worthwhile if you can maintain currency.
Why are hang gliders so bad? I've only done one tandem flight hang gliding. A friend was really into paragliding for a while. Pretty expensive way to jump off rocks. His equipment aged out and I doubt he is buying another.
When I had my Cherokee I took a friend up for a local scenic. He was into sky diving. When I turned final to land he commented "This is weird. I've never landed in an airplane before."
When I had my Cherokee I took a friend up for a local scenic. He was into sky diving. When I turned final to land he commented "This is weird. I've never landed in an airplane before."
In my buddies plane, we had a hard pull up to miss birds followed by negative g's over the top. Better than any roller coaster. Obviously not an aerobatic plane but can do ~+4/-1.5 g's.
Powered flight is mostly the feeling of accomplishment of navigating while following the rules. Flying the big stuff is more system management than yoke and throttle work. You travel at speeds that would get you multiple HTA 172s but there is no sense of speed unless you hedge hop (Not good).
I prefer motorcycling and it would be even better if cagers had to do their training to the same level as a private pilot.
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www.sosaglidingclub.com
www.yorksoaring.com
www.bramptonflightcentre.com
www.uprightaviation.com
perlanproject.org
