How much does it cost to get a solo glider pilot license?

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How much will it cost me to go solo?

We reckon that typically it will cost somewhere between £600 - £1200 to get to solo standard but this varies enormously depending on a number of factors the two main ones being:-

Your aptitude for learning the skills involved in gliding and
How frequently you undertake training sessions (referred to as your degree of "currency")

Aptitude.
Learning to glide is a bit like learning to drive a car. Hand-eye co-ordination, judgement, awareness and the like are all needed. An understanding of mechanics is not needed to drive a car, just a basic knowledge of the functions of the controls. Gliding is the same - you don't need to know very much about how a glider works, just what the controls do. If you found it easy to learn to drive, you will probably find it easy to learn to glide. Age has an influence. The younger you are the easier you may find it to learn - this is the same as for most things. However, age is no barrier. We have had many newcomers to gliding starting after reaching retirement age and becoming competent solo pilots. In fact some of the country's best competition pilots are not in their "first flush of youth".

Frequency.
The less time between your lessons the less you will forget between each. If you can only come gliding say 2 mornings a month then you will spend a lot of time trying to pick up on the skills you have let get rusty since your previous lesson. Conversely, if you can attend regularly on a weekly basis say or come on a week's course then you will make better progress.

So, bearing in mind the above, the table below gives the cost likely to be incurred to get to solo standard based on the current cost of annual membership, joining fee, winch launches and cost per minute of the club's two seat training gliders.

Number of launches	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
Likelihood of going solo in this time	Very unlikely	Unlikely	Possible	Typical	Typical	Typical	Possible	Unusual	Very unusual
average flight time (mins)	Cost in £s (updated 11^th November 2006)
5	449	529	609	689	769	849	929	1009	1090
10	483	580	677	775	872	969	1066	1163	1261
15	517	631	746	860	974	1089	1203	1317	1432

Where the unit costs^* are:-

Winch launch	£6.30^*	The cost of the winch to get you off the ground
Glider cost / minute	34.2p^*	The club charge for the use of the glider
Membership per year	£250	The annual cost of membership of the SGC
Capitation Fee	^{£38.50^**}	The BGA use this to administer the sport
Club joining fee	£0^***	One-off cost of joining the SGC

* (Including following year club rebate).
**Because we are a Scottish club we are members of both the British Gliding Association and the Scottish Gliding Association
*** The Club joining fee has been discontinued from 19/3/2003.

Note the actual unit costs vary according to various factors such as whether you are a student (cheaper) and whether you continue your club membership into the following year (rebate scheme). See the club tariff for full details.

For comparison purposes, one instructor's records show that over 1000 instructional winch launches, the average flight time was 12.2 minutes. Again this can vary enormously - from less than 1 minute duration when launch emergencies are being taught to over 3 hours when the opportunity to fly cross country is taken.

To summarise, learning to fly a glider will probably cost you £600-£1200 compared to learning to fly a powered aircraft where the cost is likely to be nearer to £3000-£5000. Which would you rather do?

But remember, the bottom line is that the costs given above are likely estimates and are not guaranteed and depend mostly on yourself.

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