The Soaring Journey
From your first lesson to soaring the Alps
Why learn to soar?
Adventure and decision making with elements of science, technology, and engineering
Learning to soar does not just teach you to fly it also helps you develop other life skills including:
Promoting team work
Developing practical engineering
Promoting personal development
Learning responsibility
The soaring journey is specifically designed to take pilots from the very basics right through to advanced glider flying, supported by qualified instructors, coaches and an array of learning possibilities. Through the Pilot Training Program, created in collaboration with Gliding New Zealand and CAA approved, glider pilots are taken from their very first lesson, to becoming a Solo Pilot, right through to Alpine Pilot. Each step requires checklists of tasks to be performed, different circumstances to have been experienced and an understanding to have formed, in order to move to the next level. With opportunities to accept challenges and engage in competitions along the way, the soaring journey is an ongoing pathway to personal development in the gliding sport.
Future pathways and goals
Learn the fundamentals of flight through the gliding sport
Goals within the gliding scene could be; to get your Passenger Rating, your Instructor’s Rating or begin the chase for the much sought after FAI 1000 km Badge. Competitions, to gauge your progress at multiple levels, are held across NZ annually and WWGC is often represented by at least one club member at each of these. Some have gone on to represent New Zealand at World Gliding Championships.
Careers in aviation include becoming a (commercial) pilot, Air Traffic Controller, joining the NZ Air Force, working for any airline or joining the Civil Aviation Authority, to name but a few.
Anyone serious about a future pathway in aviation could be strongly recommended to learn the fundamentals of flight through the gliding sport.
Accounts of air disasters having been averted by (former) glider pilots are abundant. A couple of well known cases being Captain ’Sully’ who successfully landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River in 2009 and Captain Pearson, who successfully landed a Boeing 767 in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada in 1983. Both using techniques almost never used in commercial flight.
The insights that come from learning to navigate the skies without the use of an engine is knowledge that lies at the base of all aviation principles, there simply is no deeper understanding.
