What to fly?

Spending a few evenings on Google gave me vague answers about cost and timescales. One thing was clear: I couldn’t afford powered flight. Two alternatives came to mind: powered paraglider (a.k.a. paramotor) or sailplane. I chose the glider since a paramotor can only fly in calm, windless conditions, which are rare in the UK.

How long does it take?

Most gliding clubs won’t tell you. I will.
But first: if you’re just rushing your solo flight, you’re in the wrong mindset.

In my case it took one full season (end of March to October), 66 total launches (58 winch + 8 aerotow), and 14 hours of flight time. It varies a lot; expect no fewer than 40 launches, and usually anyone makes it to solo within 100.

How much does it cost?

It depends on you, which is why clubs don’t give numbers. If you need a budget: consider €3,500 and 1 year of training for your first solo and roughly the same again to get the SPL license.

Typical prices:

• Club membership: €250–600/year

• Winch launch: €5–10

• Aerotow: €30–50

• Flight time: €0–70/hour (sometimes included in membership)

For those crying that €3,500 is expensive: a new iPhone costs over €1,000, a night out in London runs about €100, and the optional extras on a car can cost a full year of gliding. It’s a matter of priorities.

Tips for efficient training

Even during instruction, you are flying. The instructor in the back seat is a safety net but you’ll be doing most of the flying. Don’t be afraid to ask to skip exercises and just go flying because it is a wonderful day and you just want to fly. It delays progression, but it’s worth it.

Choose the right aircraft. Look for clubs with ASK21 or Grob 103 twin gliders, or fibreglass gliders in general. Wooden gliders like the ASK13 are beautiful pieces of history, but their performance is poor, and you’ll have to convert anyway. Do yourself a favor and start with something that flies like a modern glider.

Be proactive with your instructor. Don’t just show up and ask to fly. Before each session, have a look at your training record, check what the next steps are, and ask to practice them. Insist on proper briefings and debriefings: if it is perfectly clear to you how the maneuver works and how the plane reacts before you are in the air, you will understand faster and quicker.

Fly continuously. If you train once a weekend like I did, the first flight of each session is spent recovering where you left off. A full week of intensive training is dramatically more efficient than months of once-a-week sessions. If your club organises courses, take some holiday days and go.

Aerotows vs winch. Aerotows give more flight time but cost more. If money is tight, train on the winch. If time is the priority, aerotow.

Read. Arriving at the airfield knowing the aerodynamics and procedures means instructors can push you forward instead of repeating basics. Recommended books:

• Gliding: From Passenger to Pilot — Steven Longland

• Glider Flying Handbook — FAA (free online)

• Beginning Gliding — Derek Pigott

• The Glider Pilot’s Manual — Ken Stewart

• Understanding Gliding — Derek Pigott

Familirize with flight computers. Install XCsoar or LK8000 on your phone and get familiar with them before you need them in the air. The learning curve is steep, so why not start early?

Use a simulator. Condor Soaring 3 with a basic joystick and rudder pedals (~€100) is genuinely useful. You can practice aerotow without paying the full price and connect XCsoar to learn to use it while on the ground.

Update, June 2026: Since writing this article in 2022, I did get the SPL. Since then I've joined a gliding club south of Munich. If you're curious about what comes after the license, that's a story for another post.

Work? There’s LinkedIn.
Code and projects? GitHub.
Videos? YouTube.
Photos? Instagram.
Trying to shout your ideas at trolls? Facebook.

But there are a few things none of these platforms offer, and that pushed me to build my own space:

• Ownership. When you open any social media, you’re bombarded with content you didn’t ask for. I wanted a quiet place where you can read just this if you like it, or leave forever if you don’t.

• Aggregation. I have projects on GitHub, posts scattered on Facebook, a couple of ideas for a YouTube channel, and ideas floating around with no home. I need to put everything in one place.

• Learning something new. Building a website is a useful skill. It still is in the AI era.

You might ask, why are you not writing in Italian? It would be easier in my native language, but in English I have a larger audience and fewer oppurtunities to insert terrible puns. The trade-off is worth it.

Update, June 2026: Four years later, I’ve moved the blog from my hand-built GitHub Pages site to Substack. The reasons for writing haven’t changed! But maintaining a blog in a static site in my spare time is a losing battle. The rest of the website is still up and you can find it at leonardodelbino.com