How Much Cost to Learn to Fly Gliders? 💸

How much money to get to solo flying in a glider? Not as much as you might think! Note prices will vary around the world. Let us know in the comments how our prices compare to your club.

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📷 Equipment Used to Make this Video:

00:00 Commercial vs Not-for-profit
00:59 Membership Fees
01:15 Tow Fees
02:32 Glider Hire
03:33 My Solo Costs
04:22 What else do you need?!

[Mojoke]

For a UK example, I am 62, I started flying in May 2021, at DSGC North Hill. Apart from 4 aero tow launches for spin training, all other launches were winched. In July 2022 I went solo with 10hrs 40mins, with a total of 72 launches, and it cost me £1381.08. It is the best money I have ever Because of poor autumn weather it then took ages to get off daily checks, but I've since converted to single seater, and looking forward to further training and spending as much time as humanly possible catching up on what I should have been doing for the last 20 years!!!

[-fishhub-billydriessen]

My grandad is still a glider instructor at 85 years old and he works more hours each week than most Americans. 🙈 I guess what they say is true, “If you truly love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”

[uwerothe]

different here (NL): I pay a anual fee of 700 euros, all are asked for 40 hours maintenance repair time in the winter days, and thats it. free takeoff, free glider, free winch

[widnyj]

Just wanted to say, that yesterday I passed official exam! Now just 1mo waiting for the license, thanks for keeping me motivated throughout the 1y of training :)

[pilotlennart]

Here in Germany (Hahnweide Airfield) we pay 6€ per winch launch, around 4€/minute in Tow and around 15-20€ per hour for the glider (+ some club fees and 60hours of time at our workshop for maintaining the gliders )

[thefreedomguyuk]

The short answer : Contact your local club, and you'll learn it's often surprisingly affordable. If you're in UK, the initial course can be had very cheaply off-season, and a "to solo" plan really doesn't cost very much.
Go on, you know you want to !!

[paquettel]

The first thing I notice in your video is the heavenly environment of your country (nice improvement since Sauron :-)
Here (Eastern Canada), because of significantly less favorable flying conditions, a short paved runway 12 feet wide, and 90° crosswinds 80% of the time, a gifted student will take no less than 40 hours and ±40 circuits to reach solo, 60hrs/50 cir. for an average pilot and +80hrs/60 cir. for the less gifted. At least $4000 us, that's for sure.

[markplain]

I am apparently cleared to go solo (am awaiting an approval from Transport Canada - a new nonsense requirement). Here in Canada we have to cover first good circuits and secondly good upper air work. In essence it has taken me 42 flights. Most other pilots I know have taken that average of 42 flights.
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I'd like to get scientific about tow time and glider time, but one simple look at my average costs per flight (all thrown in) and its $120 per flight. Our membership fee is $700 per year.
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Hence ($120 x 42) + $700 = $5, 740 (spent over the season)
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some advice:
1. Try be as regular as possible: go out every weekend - even on crappy days (you can do circuits on crappy days).
2. If you take breaks between lessons your progress will be hampered.
3. As you get better identify the instructors who you do well in communication. You often find that a handful of instructors 'click' well in their communication with you. It is NOT a criticism of instructors, it is a communication finesse and as you start getting better you don't want your flight record hampered by an instruction communication 'issue' or it will cost you money.
4. Be prepared for a type of 'S-curve' in your learning ie: you were improving so well then suddenly you start getting worse. This is normal.
5. Above all make it clear in your mind that you need to become an inherently safe pilot. For example if your instructor had to over power your final approach because you did something dangerous - take that lesson seriously!
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A suggested bit of advice to all instructors: simply ask your student if there is anything that they want to ask or know about the most recent flight. Too often instructors are more prepared to lecture the student than to listen to the student or get feed back from the student.
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Please remember: we do this for the love and fun - NOT TO GET HURT. Let's fly safe

[daveandrew]

It's worth noting that there is a lot the student can do to make the process more efficient and save money. Be responsible and proactive your own learning. Study, study, study. The more you pre-visualize what needs to happen in the glider, the less instructor time you will need and the more ready you will be to make sense of what your instructor is telling you. You should be able to pass the written test before your first lesson (IMO). Get Condor2, it's cheaper than a single lesson, so if it saves you at least one lesson then it's paid for itself. Don't just putz around with Condor, set up some disciplined lessons. Be careful of forming bad habits in Condor, real flying and instruction will trump that. Study the operating manual for the glider you will train in. You should know the speeds and how to interpret the polar before you get into it. Listen to radio calls before you have to do them. I watched about 200 gliding videos before I got in one. Be an active student, request clarification if you're not 100% getting the idea on something. Practice, practice, practice in that flight simulator between the ears. My instructor likes to say 'What is the next thing you need to know? Answer: The next 3 things you need to do'. A lot of flying is knowing without thinking what you need to do next. Preparation, preparation, preparation.

[vojtechklepetko]

I did a glider training last year in Czechia. Total cost was little over 3000 EUR. I did it with 2 other guys and we all needed around 100 flights to first solo. Those flights included everything from basics through circuits and terrain landings to spins and stalls. I did it in L13 Blanik, witch is awesome school plane.

[jme]

If you want to have your own glider, an old club class at 20, 000 euros, it will cost you about 3, 000 euros per year if you fly 60 hours, not counting the lost value of the glider .
When I started, fifty years ago, it cost me about 6, 000 francs for three weeks of training . Food and shelter (barrack room style) were included . That sum was about a teacher's three week pay or 1, 500 euros .
At the end of the three weeks I had 20 flights and 8 hours and my instructor wanted to let me solo, but I declined, feeling not yet ready . I soloed the next year, at my club, after 6, 7 aditional flights .

[datkeks]

did my first flight a bit more than a month ago. and yeah youre right, there is really no point of watching other people fly. there is no adrenaline. you have no control about the glider, where you look and so on. and the most important of all: to have memories and stories to tell. you cannot just tell someone "oh i watched someone on youtube gliding", why just not "oh yeah btw i became a glider pilot now and i did this and that". and its just boring to watch other people fly

[AirJoe]

Our club is 1000 dollars a year but 40 dollars for a 3000 foot tow and thats it. Instructors dont cost anything planes don't and the land doesn't.

[gahazebrouck]

Beside the regulations it seems to me that every club has its own policy/standard regarding the training you need before doing your first solo flight, or before carrying someone onboard.
In our club we pay €550 anual fee, and part of it is released for flying based on how helpful you are to maintain the club (fair enough to me).
Then we pay 33€/h and 10€/winch. Normally you need about 40 to 50 circuits and about 15 hours for the first solo. Altogether it is about €2000 distributed in two seasons, but you can do it in one year if you have enough free time.
Comparatively, learning to fly a propellor airplane costs 150€/h!

[ChrisGordan]

Yes, many ask this question, not knowing that it is almost irrelevant. Getting your license is only the beginning. The question that I ask in return. Is, “What can you comfortably budget per month, on flying?”.

That’s the number that is important to being able to fly regularly to maintain proficiency. The license is only the first expense in a lifetime commitment. Think in the long term to decide if flying s for you.

[bartjoboy]

In the Netherlands at my club in Teuge (entirely run by volunteers) it's surprisingly cheap:
- Monthly club fee: €72, 50
- Yearly contribution to the Royal Dutch Aviation Association (required insurance): €187, -
- Before your first solo flight, you need to do a required medical test (every 5, 2 or 1 years depending on age): €110, -
- They do expect you to help with winter maintenance for about 40 hours every winter period
- Of course on a flght day, you need to help around the field the whole day to get other people in the air, returning gliders after they landed, etc.

So biggest investment is actually time, because you can't just show up in the middle of the day, fly a few times and go home in 3 hours. You have to be there from 10:00 till about ~17:00-18:00 to help keep the whole thing going. Of course, you also get to fly in between and you can normally make about 3-4 flights on such a day :) I think that's fair and keeps the price low, but be prepared to schedule a whole day in your weekend for flying if you want to do it regularly.

For that club fee you get:
- Free winch starts
- Plane tow starts at just €26, - per use
- Free use of club gliders
- Free flights together with an instructor for your traineeship
- Free theory lessons during winter period (but actual exam costs €20, - a module, with 9 modules thats €180, - total)

[davesgliding]

Well, there's the cost of going solo, which is the first step towards getting licensed, and what you've covered here. There's the cost of getting licensed on top of that, which here is 20 solos with check-flights interspersed, and then your flight exam (usually 2 flights). There's ground school (15-30 hours, only $200 here), and your written exam. Then once you are licensed, you get experience soaring (staying aloft for hours vs minutes), then bronze badge, then cross-country, then you buy your own glider to fly longer and not have to reserve a club one, learn to fly in competitions, and so forth. You never stop learning to fly a glider, since you're always learning and developing better skills until it's time to hang up your bucket hat. In other words, you never stop learning to fly a glider. 🙂

[henryluebberstedt]

Glider Club Hamburg-Boberg: 180 Euro per Quarter (720 Euros per year). Winch: 4, 50 Euro per launch; cost for flightminute depends on plane (35 cents for an ASK21). Payback-System for working hours in the winter time. We are a certified flight school. For club members there a no extra fees for flights with instuctors ect. Our planes; 2 x ASK21, 2x SZD- 51 Junior, 2x LS-4b, Discus-2b, Discus-2c FES, Duo Discus XL, Duo Discus XLT, Arcus T, SF-25C Rotax Falke, Super Dimona, Romoqueur DR 400, Breezer B400-6.

[marcelofainstein]

Hi guys. I am 61 years old and I fly in Argentina (70km from Buenos Aires). Here the glider pilot course consists of approximately 50 flights (depending on the ability of the student, in my case there were 30). The last 10 were ¨solo flights¨ Each flight costs approximately USD 20 (Instructor and glider included). Once the license is obtained, each airplane tow up to the height of 500 meters costs approximately USD 15. The club membership is around USD10/month. the registration to the club is USD300 (only once). In the summer season, a single fee is paid for the right to use flight equipment (gliders) of approximately USD100. I understand that there should be no place in the world where it is cheaper to fly (and other things...)

[fingerhorn]

Costs have shot up way higher than inflation. In the UK we have courses, for which you get temporary membership, so there is no joining fee and no per hour hire. In my day (not so long ago) I went solo for the total cost of £500 - a bargain. Since then the price of fuel, gliders, tow planes and general equipment/insurance have risen exponentially. It used to be that gliding was a small fraction of the cost of power flying but not any longer. My advice to beginners is to go on a course at an airfield with winches - it is MUCH cheaper. Take a five day "holiday" course and you might just get to solo if you have ability. Oh, and find a good, calm instructor who doesn't shout! Worry about joining the club after solo, not before.