Well I went down to the Byron Airport on Sunday looking for a gliding club to look into signing up for and getting my gliding license since im old enough but im not old enough for a pilots license. I was there for about 5 hours. Its very suprising how everyone in the gliding club is so friendly and alot of people from outside the country with there accents. Well when we got there, before even talking to anyone about gliders we helped someone put on there wings. After that we talked about the club and what not. Then I decided to go up on a flight to see if thats what I wanna do. They didnt wanna pull out a new glider so we just waited for the one in use to be one with. That took about an hour. So we helped push some gliders out to the runway. After that we went up on our flight. Defiantly an expierence, although not as great as flying but still fun. We were towed for about 15 minutes. After that we glided around looking for some thermals. He let me take the controls while we were trying to find the thermals and then he was showing me what type of aerobatics the gliders can do. We actually ended up lossing our radio in the sky  , he was telling me to turn the volume up so I did but a loud noise was coming on so I turned it down and then he said he couldnt hear any other planes on the radio, so he thought I was changing the frequency until I told him the numbers were blocking out. Then he said put your hand over the numbers it's probably the sun and I said I am, right now theres only a 2 left. And he said oh no, I see the problem the batterys running out, no problem we'll just have to land the old fashion way!  So we landed with no radios. The whole flight was pretty amazing. Im defiantly interested in getting my gliding license.  I remember one of the members on the forum recommended I should when I had pictures of my first flight.

Good one!

tcco94 wrote on Mar 16^th, 2010 at 2:38pm:

Well if gliding isn't flying I don't know what is.

Well done Tyler...that smile is worth a thousand words...

Good luck on your flying....

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Other than having the ability to climb without the aid of a thermal and not having to be towed airborne, having a motor on the airframe is often a bit of a liability to 'flying'.  Consider the 'P' factor from the prop, the torque from the engine and the gauge scanning to make sure all's well.  Glider flying is the purest form of the art and the deft maneuvering touch you'll acquire, plus attention to your flight environment will stand you in good stead when you get to powered flight.