Hi, It sort of depends on what you want to do. If you just want to go for a quick joy ride in the mountains, or if you want to learn to fly for real. Gliding in itself, regardless of if you are flying in the mountains or on the flat, is an incredible experience and a great confidence booster, but it takes time to learn and it can be difficult and at times very frustrating.
I would recommend that you learn to fly before going to NZ. If you have the time then a one-week boot camp as soon as possible, as it removes a lot of the frustration of trying to learn over a number of weekends, and you can then start to build experience before going to NZ. Firstly, it will get your head used to flying so that you'll be able to do longer flights without feeling ill, and you'll learn that it's perfectly normal to pee in a bag on those long flights... Secondly, I think it'd be very frustrating to have to do your circuit bashing for a week when the mountains are right there. The more experience you arrive with the more likely you are to actually get to fly in the mountains. And as for where to fly, Omarama in NZ of course. There are the mountains, in a week you are almost guaranteed to have at least one day of good weather, it's much closer (and probably much more accessible) than Argentina/European Alps/Nevada, and Kiwis are much more easy-going than the French/Germans/Americans. You might like to contact the commercial operators in Omarama and ask them these questions. They'll be able to answer how much experience they want you to have before taking you into the mountains etc, and if you are booking a week long course you might like to check when they usually get booked up for the next season. Southern Soaring http://soaring.co.nz/ Glide Omarama http://glideomarama.com/ Regards, Mats On 22:17:38 27/12/2008 "Hitman (Melb)" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > Just a couple of questions to help me out and i guess to promote some > discussion. > > Myself and my partner are both interested in learning to fly full > size gliders (we both fly r/c gliders). We are planning a holiday > (frequent flyer points yay)possibly to NZ in the next 12 months and > as part of this holiday would like to do some soaring over mountain > ranges. Which leads me to 2 questions. > > First, would you recomend learning to glide here in Australia and > where would you recomend (i'm in outer eastern melbourne) or would i > be better doing a "boot camp" at the holiday location and would those > quals obtained abroad be recognised here or vice-versa. > > Second, (semi-related) what location would you consider to be the > "ultimate" place to fly a glider anywhere in the world and why? > > Thanks in advance for satisfying my curiosity. > > Cheers > Matthew > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > [email protected] > To check or change subscription details, visit: > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
