Interested?
Join Us
Interested in joining?
Email us at membership@cascadesoaringsociety.com for more info!
How about learning to fly a glider?
The benefits of club membership are many. Soaring is a fantastic sport but without help it can become expensive, time consuming, and laborious. Membership in a soaring club helps you maximize your safe enjoyment of the sport while saving you time and money.
Ultimately, a club is all about its members. The best way to learn about our club is to stop by the hangar for a visit.
You'll learn that our membership is diverse, ranging from young students to retirees, from beginners to certified flight instructors, from low-time pilots to those with decades of experience and thousands of hours in their logbooks. We are united by a common bond - our passion for soaring.
Fair Warning: Soaring is addictive
Fortunately, because our club works together to share expenses and contribute "sweat equity", we are able to keep the costs of soaring very low in comparison to other forms of aviation. By sharing expenses, we are able to afford our own fleet of gliders and our own tow plane. We are also able to afford our own hangar, complete with kitchen, bathroom, and shower.
We are constantly learning from each other
After a day of flying, there is always some informal debriefing to attend to (a.k.a. "hangar flying"), which is a great way to learn from each others experiences. From a more formal perspective, we also offer flight instruction to our membership. Having built-in access to flight instruction is a huge benefit for all our members... from new students to experienced pilots who wish to brush up on technique or take care of that biennial flight review.
Soaring involves a certain number of logistical issues that require extra sets of hands, and these are readily available in a club environment. The obvious example: it's pretty hard to fly the tow plane and the glider at the same time. There are many others: pushing gliders to the launch area on a hot day, assembly/dis-assembly of gliders, or retrieving a pilot who has landed out.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, enjoyment of the sport of soaring is heavily contingent on the ability to fly safely. Certified pilots are very familiar with the concept of "Pilot in Command" and understand why the FAA emphasizes personal responsibility and accountability. The FAA and others also teach the benefits of "Crew Resource Management"...the ability to increase safety by working as a team. As a club member, you will become part of a team that looks out for its members constantly, thus providing an important layer of backup and support.