Guides

Age, medicals, weight limits, how long it takes, what it costs, and the parts that put people off. Written to be useful, not to get you through the door.

Anyone thinking about starting · has a calculator

Real numbers, honestly read. Risk concentrates in inexperience — which is exactly when an instructor is sitting behind you.

Newcomers, and the people worrying at home

None, in the US, at any level. What replaces the certificate asks more of you than the certificate ever did.

Anyone wondering if they're allowed

Fifteen funds, dated and checked. Nine close in March, which is months before most people start looking.

Students, juniors and the clubs that should be telling them · has a calculator

They fail on evidence, not on flying — and nearly all of it is decided before you launch.

Cross-country pilots and Official Observers

Where the market actually is, what the inspection must cover, and the one finding that should end the conversation.

First-time buyers and syndicate members · has a calculator

An aerotow suffers at both ends of the rope. What a hot day at a high field actually does to your launch.

Pilots, tow pilots and ops officers · has a calculator

Your score depends on other people's flying, and there is a cliff at two thirds of the winner's speed. Both are deliberate.

Competition pilots and anyone scoring one · has a calculator

Two tangent lines explain almost everything — including why the polar tells you to carry water on a two-knot day.

Cross-country pilots and instructors · has a calculator

Budget in labour hours, not dollars. For many 1970s ships the job costs more than the aircraft is worth.

Buyers, owners and club fleet managers · has a calculator

You are legally exempt and electronically nearly invisible. Those are the same sentence, and only one of them is the point.

Pilots and club committees

Everyone calls it a waiver. It is not one, and understanding what it actually is changes what you think it covers.

Wave pilots and the clubs that host them

The legal thresholds were written for aircraft that pass through altitude. A glider sits there for three hours.

Anyone flying high, and anyone planning to · has a calculator

No rating exists. Three endorsements do, the guidance everyone cites was cancelled, and currency has a gap worth naming.

Motorglider owners and pilots considering one

Freight is a solved problem. The de-registration standoff in the middle of the paperwork is the part that strands aircraft.

Buyers looking at the European market

The logistics half of landing out — trailers, crew, landowners — which is where nearly all the friction actually lives.

Anyone thinking about their first cross-country

Fuel is under half of it. Where the rest goes, and how to set a tow fee on purpose rather than by inheritance.

Treasurers and committees · has a calculator

Including when the honest answer is a spreadsheet, and where we are the wrong answer. No competitor price table.

Committees evaluating options

Why six people end up doing everything, and what a roster is actually for. It is not filling slots.

Committees and ops officers

They rarely lose interest. They lose access. The arithmetic of launch rate, and how to spot the students you are about to lose.

CFIs, committees and instructors · has a calculator

Month by month, what needs doing and when — and the things the outgoing treasurer knows that were never written down.

Treasurers and incoming treasurers · has a calculator

The flight is rarely the problem. The fortnight afterwards is, and in most clubs nobody owns it.

Committees and anyone flying visitors · has a calculator

Being indispensable is a risk to the club and usually unfair to the person. What gets lost, and how to hand it over.

Committees and outgoing officers

Insurer first, national body second, a lawyer once. Why we do not publish templates, and the checklist of what to ask for.

Committees and club officers

Intro-flight income has a ceiling, your reserve fund's interest shares it, and sloppy records shift the burden of proof onto you.

Treasurers, presidents and committees · has a calculator

A club can look solvent for twenty years and be insolvent the whole time. The reserve arithmetic, worked.

Treasurers and committees · has a calculator

Your fee structure is choosing your membership every year, whether or not anyone decided that it should.

Treasurers and committees · has a calculator

100LL goes by 2030. Your tug's engine is the easy part — and its duty cycle means your club may come out ahead.

Committees, tow pilots and treasurers · has a calculator

The sport's own numbers on its own ageing. Worse than expected at one end, better than expected at the other.

Committees, and anyone arguing about decline · has a calculator