Bathurst Soaring Club holds training courses for beginners and low-time pilots, usually 4 times a year.

The courses run for 7 days, Saturday to Friday.

Dates of the next courses:

Sat December 11th – Fri December 17th - Course is full

Tentative date for next year spring course:
5-11 March and 2-8 April 2022

Note that should the COVID 19 situation deteriorate again, we might have to cancel/postpone these courses at short notice.

We have decided to make the first day of the course a Saturday. This will allow those attending to complete the necessary paperwork and get a feel for the club's operations. We normally host a welcome dinner on the Saturday night which will help new students meet our members. In addition to completing several instructional flights during the weekend, duty pilots and other club members can train students on the course in:

• safety procedures
• general on-field glider handling
• wing running
• tug signalling
• completing flight sheets
• hooking up gliders
• driving the retrieve vehicle
• washing gliders, hangaring, etc...
• filling in glider's Maintenance Release

This introductory training will greatly assists the instructors to get into flying earlier on the Monday morning and running the course more smoothly. 
 
Bookings and weather permitting, course attendees will get their first flight with a weekend instructor on Saturday or Sunday. This is likely to be limited to one or two flights only so as not to impact on other club members, however, if time permits, additional flights might be possible. Intense flight training will start on Monday.

The training course includes:

• All Course materials, log books, the "Basic Gliding Knowledge" textbook, lectures
• Launches (20 to 2,000 ft, or equivalent tows to a total of 40,000 ft)
• Glider hire
• Instruction (maximum 3 students per instructor - Monday to Friday)
• Three months membership of the Bathurst Soaring Club and Gliding Federation of Australia
• Bunk House accommodation and use of Club Facilities (includes the use of Kitchen, BBQ, TV, Wifi, etc)

If due to adverse weather or for any other reason you are not able to take your 20 launches during the week, you will be credited with the launch height remaining from the initial allocation of 40,000 feet and you are free to take further flights during the following weekend or during normal operations over the following three months until the allocation is exhausted.  After that, flights will be at the usual club rates. 

This course is for Ab Initio (beginners) or early glider pilots with limited hours only.

Cost for the Course:

• Non-Members (over the age of 25): $2,100 including 3 months BSC membership, GFA ($166), Log Book and 40,000 feet launch with free glider hire. We collect $1,934 before the course and the student pays $166 to the GFA on line at the beginning of the course.
• Non Members Juniors (under age 26) $1,500 including as above except 12mths BSC and GFA membership
• Members (over age 25): First course $1,700, subsequent course: $1,650 (no logbook or GBK)

If you are interested, please contact us by clicking here. Please include a contact mobile number in your email enquiry.

Happy Soaring...