Gliding in Essex

You're sure of a warm welcome at this Essex gliding club! Based at the tranquil Ridgewell Airfield, hidden in the glorious countryside around the Suffolk/Essex borders, this 'glider-only' airfield has a very relaxed 'family' feel to the membership. That's why we're offering the full range of glider experiences here at this Essex club.

As you may already know, gliding is all about soaring, but how long you get to do this for does depend on your launch height and weather conditions on the day of your glider flight. If the thermals over Essex are playing ball, you'll easily soar away for 20 minutes on one flight when you're launched from around 2000ft with the Bronze experience. The Silver experience sees you being released at 3000ft above the ground, giving you typically between 30 and 40-minutes' flying time. The Gold flight is the big one. This time the Piper Pawnee tug plane will release you from one mile up and you'll be gliding for the best part of an hour.

By planning glider flights in this way, this Essex gliding club ensures that all students get the most air time possible and consequently, more opportunity to have hands-on experience when you're up in the air. This is what these experiences are all about, with the idea being that you follow the same basic lessons as budding pilots learning their craft. So the first thing to master is handling 'straight and level flight', followed by turning the glider!

These gliders have a tandem seating configuration, which means you'll be up front (the best seat in the house for checking out the views of Essex!), whilst your instructor is in the rear seat. Of course, all the gliders used for lessons are dual-controlled. This Ridgewell Airfield club has a two types of two seat training gliders that are regularly used for these trial glider flights over Essex. You might be launching in the PW-6, which is a modern fibreglass model, or the K13, a classic design of glider that's a true delight to fly.