I really liked the suggestion that if you really want to improve your
soaring start looking at purchasing a sailplane. You will fly more
plus it will give you plenty to do in the off season. You would be
surprised how much you can do (legally) to pet and spruce up your own
glider. As already mentioned it doesn't have to be expensive. I flew
my 1st contest at Ephrata in my 1-26.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

I gotta agree with Brian and the others who have posted this comment
about getting your own glider.

I started by getting my PPL (ASEL) before finding out how awesome
soaring is. I took a few flights in 2006 and got my Glider Rating in
early 2007. I have thought many times about getting Instrument-Rated,
but there are two reasons why I don't:

1) It takes money away from my soaring budget! Getting that
Instrument rating is about as expensive as getting your original PPL.
There are a LOT of materials to buy and study, and a lot of practice
in the air to learn all the different types of approaches and systems.

2) I study accident and safety reports a lot (Aviation Safety
Magazine, AvWeb's safety articles, APOA/ASF/EAA articles, etc). It
seems to me that a lot of pilots get into trouble by flying IFR when
they are not prepared for it. Flying through bad weather is not
something you can just casually hop in and do. You need to be
practiced and you need to be current. I decided that I do not have
the budget or the flying schedule that would take me IFR more than a
couple of times a year - and I would likely be "rusty" as a result.
That's no way to be when you're trying to fly in difficult
conditions! Since I can't/won't fly IFR with any regularity, I think
its safer for me personally to not have the license and the temptation
to try, when its not good flying weather.

....As far as glider ownership goes:

It took me almost a year to get in 30 flights (5 different
instructors) with my club, and get my glider rating.
I bought an inexpensive Russia AC-4a in June of this year, and have
LOVED it! I have put in 23 flights in 6 months - and averaged a
little over 2 hours per flight (we have pretty weak conditions in the
Seattle area, and cloudbase this year was rarely higher than 3k-4k
AGL). There are times when the lift is weak and spaced far apart that
I envy the 40:1 ships; but most of the time I can do well in the
glider. It handles like a sports-car, it rigs in about 5 minutes
(almost single-handedly with no rigging gear), and its light enough
that I can easily push it around the field single-handedly.

To give an idea of cost-of-ownership of an inexpensive glider like
this:
I pay about $270/month (on a $14,000 loan - long story, but basically
I put zero down)
Plus $20/month for trailer parking
Plus $800/year for insurance

It seems that people are doing syndicates less and less; but after
owning for 6 months I have to say that even with an aggressive flying
schedule like I had, a 2-person syndicate would likely have worked.
My local club has some mediocre gliders that I could have taken up on
the few days I would have been "bumped" from my Russia by a partner.
If you cut the above dollar-amounts in half it really makes a
compelling argument for private ownership! Its nice to have the
glider you want, with the panel & equipment you want, and to know the
condition of it all. :-)

Good luck!

Take care,

--Noel