Recommended books

Beginners' books

While you will be taught theory during your flights with instuctors we strongly recommend you support this with background reading. There are several good books for beginners:

• The Glider Pilots Manual by Ken Stewart
• Gliding, From Passenger to Pilot by Steven Longland

Advanced books

More advanced pilots should get:

• Bronze and Beyond by John McCullagh
• Advanced Soaring Made Easy - Bernard Eckey

Complete e-books

For a student on a tight budget there are a number of old gliding books available online for free. Free books tend to be decades old and may have out-of-date information including safety-related guidance. This a section of free complete e-books from the Wally Kahn Library.

• Teaching Harry to Fly – David Millett 1994
• Gliding in 8 Days – Adrian Morgan 1990
• Gliding and Soaring – Bill Scull 1977
• Soaring Across Country – Bill Scull 1987
• Cross-Country Soaring – Helmut Reichmann 1978
• The Handbook of Glider Aerobatics – Mallinson & Wollard 1999
• Meteorology and Flight – Tom Bradbury 2000
• BGA Manual – BGA 2002

External resources

• Free e-books from the Wally Kahn Library
• Free magazine and book archive
• FAA Glider Flying Handbook – Warning: this is a USA publication, and some information is incorrect in the UK, it also has a few known mistakes. It has limited information on winch launching as this is uncommon in the USA.