Skycowboy,
There is an awesome club just West of Memphis.
If your interested, drop me a PM and I'll try to give you the gouge.
Dude, get the rating if you can!! If you have yet to fly a glider, beware my friend, the bug WILL bite you and you'll be hooked!!
I've flown gliders in Colorado and California while on vacation.
I fly at Mach .8 above FL400 for a living, but seriously can't wait to soar at any chance avail.
Also picked up a Sea plane rating and recommend it if you have the time and funds avail.
Let me know if you need info regarding this as well.

Press on!

 

SWEET FMI!!!

You a glider pilot down around MEM?? If so we'll go gliding if I get the rating some weekend!

 

If you ever make it out to Durango, CO. for a summer vacation, there is a place near town where you can go for some of the best gliding!! I recommend it to everyone. The thermals are awesome, giving you plenty of time to glide and soar around those mountain tops.
If you make it to Tehachapi, CA., just Southeast of Bakersfield, there is a great place to glide there as well. Interesting enough, you will find a great number of wind generators there. Those white tall towers with massive 3 blade props. As you are gliding in that area, you can look for a couple of those generators that are not spinning, amongst the many others that are. This is generally a good indication of where a thermal is.
Pretty awesome to wing over, gain some speed and listen to the rush of air over the canopy!
There are many places across this great nation of ours to enjoy this wonderful experience. Hopefully others will chime in and give you some of their favorite spots as well.
Good luck!

 

Where you based FMI?? The MEM area? FedEx driver?

Would the school be at the Lawrence Gliderport? How long can one typically stay up on a tough out of there, meaning how could is the thermal activity?

Pretty much out of questions for this post...

 

I have flown gliders out of Colorado and California. Colorado is probably the prime place to fly. In addition to the spring, summer, and fall thermals, you get a really good mountain wave from November to March. I don't have a lot of experience with mountain wave, but that is when you can get up into the flight levels in an unpowered glider. You also get a chance to land on snow during the winter. I have lots of hours in airplanes, but I have never landed on a snowy runway. My first flight after getting my private glider (after 11 hours of flight experience), I landed on a snowcovered runway. Quite an experience. I personally like it better than the dry pavement (skid doesn't make loud obnoxious noise).

Winches sound very cool. I have never had the opportunity to experience a winch launch because my airport doesn't have one, but you can bet I will get winch launch certified someway, somehow,...someday!!

 

Yes, the time definitely does count toward total time for Private, Commercial and ATP.

I know of a guy that got the ATP with roughly 1200 glider and 300 Airplane(did Private,IFR,Comm,Multi,CFI,CFII,MEI) and most of his 500 XC was in very long glider flights out west.

I think you only need 250 in airplane category for ATP certificate.

I had 1507 hrs at ATP checkride, with ~150 hrs glider.

 

Ok 727gm are you positively positive about that?!?!? If that so that is totally flippin awesome! Any chance I could get in touch with your friend that had the 1,200 glider hours? Feel free to PM me on that one or fire an e-mail into my [email protected] box.

You a 72 driver? You still do any gliding these days?

I have my Private, Instrument, Commercial, and Multi, at this point and hope to tack on the CFI, CFII, MEI in May or June - so I have a mere 500 hours total time with a whopping 4 tenths dual received in a Bell 206B - but all has been powered flight. I want to experience quiet flight, but I would like for it to count towards my total time as FLIGHT TIME that is just as LEGITIMATE as my single and multiengine airplane time!

Take care man - and welcome to the forums - good to have you around!

John