The cockpit of a Grob 103 glider (view from the back seat).

A glider in tow with a Piper Pawnee cropduster.

A Duo Discus glider.

Becoming a pilot is cheaper and far more accessible than most people think! The secret: FLY GLIDERS! The sport of flying gliders is known as "soaring", and it is flight in its purest form.

I took up soaring because flying a single-engine aircraft was costing me way too much, and I wanted to fine-tune my core flying skills.

Here's a brief overview of the sport

The aircraft looks like a very slender jet fighter with long and thin wings (like a U2 spyplane except its smaller, it has no engine, and the plane is white). It has a glass dome canopy so there's nothing obstructing your view. The glider can seat two people in a tandem configuration (one person behind the other).

In order to get into the sky, the glider is towed on a rope behind a cropduster. Once at the desired altitude, the pilot pulls a handle to release the rope to become free from the tow plane. After release, its just the pilot, the plane, and the sky. This is where the activity becomes a sport. Since the glider has no engine, maintaining or gaining altitude becomes a challenge. Without any help, the glider can only stay aloft for about 15 minutes. To stay up longer and travel greater distances, the pilot will seek out thermal air currents. These air currents are created from the sun striking the Earth's surface. This generates rising bubbles of concentrated heat known as "thermals" or thermal air currents. You can see this phenomena in the form of clear wavy bubbles while looking down an asphalt road on a hot day. The pilot will detect these air currents in the form of turbulence. Once the pilot has flown through a thermal, they will bank the plane to fly in a tight circle in order to say within the thermal and gain altitude. Utilizing this technique, glider pilots can stay up for hours. This is a skill that requires lots of concentration and well developed flying skills. Once the pilot has gained enough altitude, they can either leisurely navigate the countryside, or push their skills to the limit and soar great distances.

Getting involved

Learning this great sport is one of the most fun and rewarding things I have done. If you have no experience in aviation, it is possible to solo within your first season. There is a club about an hour north of Indianapolis in Alexandria, IN. Central Indiana Soaring Society. They have 4 gliders, and two tow planes, so aircraft availability is usually plentiful. This club offers cheap rates, free instruction, and great camaraderie.