Private airport or small field for landout?

Charles,

The Soaring Club of Houston has an incredible cross-country soaring program.. We begin with the A, B, C and Bronze badges using both classroom and glider sessions. Each Saturday morning, we begin with a group class followed by flying. At the end of the day, we review IGC files using SeeYou on the big-screen tv for all to compare and learn from. From January through March, we have much more time for class and the soaring days are typically short. By this time of year, most will have passed their C or Bronze and are attempting their Silver badge. We require the Silver badge before you can race with us but once you have it, the days are similarly organized with daily weather briefings, task calls and racing in both FAI and Sports categories. We're lucky to have fantastic coaching and a highly-engaged group of cross-country race pilots who are willing to share everything they know to make you better. Each race day typically ends with a patio debriefing with a cold beverage followed by grilling and a community dinner.

Houston has good soaring year-round but it's best from July through September. The surrounding area is relatively flat with many nearby airports, open fields and nice people. The club is quite large with a fully-furnished clubhouse, 3 Pawnees, members can own hangars on the field and we even have an RV campground with full hookups on the 90 acres of land we own. This is a fantastic place to learn to fly cross-country! We also have two PW-5s who race with us every week and they fly competitively in the tasks we call so you would be very comfortable in this crowd.

We're hosting the Sports Class Nationals the first week of August, come on out and visit us this Summer, you'll be glad you did!

Chuck Werninger
LS-4 VL
Soaring Club of Houston