First solo glider flight at the London Gliding Club 

Thanks Bruno, I suppose it hadn't quite sunk in yet whilst I was flying. I looked a lot more excited once I was on the ground!

Thank you

+Simon Trengove I was nervous before the flight but as soon as I started flying that all went and I was just able to enjoy it!

If you're ready it won't feel scary. No real tips apart from treat it no different to your previous training flights!

Clement Allen thanks

LGC is without a doubt the most friendly and welcoming club I've ever been to. Throughout my flying from first flight to my instructor course last year everybody has been extremely supportive and the training has been second to none. The fees are certainly higher than many clubs but in return you get excellent ground facilities, cross country briefings, grid launches on good days, aerotow retrieves and much more. Most of these fees are only applicable to members over 30 as the club operates reduced membership costs for junior members up to 30 years of age (see prices: bit.ly/2oDAaHp) and runs an extremely successful cadet scheme for young members currently in education. The cadet scheme has an annual membership fee of only £40, half price launches and NO soaring per minute fees whatsoever. Along with this, there are quite a few dedicated instructors focusing on helping the cadets progress their flying. Overall, LGC is an excellent club. I suggest you come and visit before forming such a strong and incorrect opinion online.

Almost all large clubs offer cross country and other briefings, and many also have excellent facilities and retrieves too, but they don't charge a whopping 72p per minute soaring or the staggeringly high other fees. I'm not really offering an opinion on anything other than costs in my post above, which are factually correct. Opinions are neither correct or incorrect, but when they are based on fact they are fair comment. LGC is an extremely expensive club but I cannot see any rational explanation as to why they are, apart from the fact that they seem to get away with it! BTW I enjoy your videos which are very well done. I'm glad that you benefited from the cadets membership which if £40 is at least 15 times cheaper for you than an ordinary member. That's great for you, not so great for anyone over 30 though ;) I also feel it is quite fair to point out to others the relative costs of gliding between clubs, which is extremely varied even for clubs which offer broadly similar facilities, as hitherto there isn't much info around, short of wading through the small print of every club website.

+Simon Trengove Yes, and it's still my home club.

Yes it is

oh nice that was the first glider i flew

Same! They're excellent training gliders

Yes it's not a lot but I was lucky in that I had the same instructor for most of those flights so the lessons were much more efficient. Time has flown since my first solo, I'm now an instructor!

Congrats, BI or the full thing? Also did you learn over the winter or summer, I feel like you'd learn quicker over the summer but by doing it over the winter it leaves time to go soaring in the spring ans summer by which time you should be gone solo.

BI for now, but currently training for a full FI(s) rating. Started in March so learnt through the summer. Think I had around 15 hours before going solo, several 2 hour soaring flights helped!

Fair enough, is the BI minimum needed to take a passenger up?

It differs between clubs but I've been passenger flying for over a year now. The requirements at our club are full Silver C and 75 hours P1 to take up passengers.