Learning How to Glide

Modern instruction is a carefully developed progression of skill and knowledge, designed to take you smoothly from your first Bunny Hill glide to advanced soaring. Certified schools have designed their program around the USHGA Skills Rating Program. Each level you earn, by demonstrating new skills and knowledge, opens a door to more advanced fun and challenge. No one launches from a mountain top on their first day of instruction. Your first flights will skim a few feet off the ground on the Bunny Hill, with the help of training wheels for landing and an easy roll back to launch. During your first few lessons you will learn the basic skills of ground handling, launch, straight and level flight and landing. Perfecting these skills will earn the first skills rating - Beginner (You will soon progress to higher hills and longer flights, learning turns and spot landings, encountering new sites and new conditions.
With a Novice Rating, you will begin to experience the real challenges of Gliding. At Ed Levin Park, you will gain experience on five progressively higher launches until you are ready for the top of the mountain, the 1750 foot Monument Peak launch. And soon enough that special day will come: a soar able day you can fly and fly until YOU want to land!
After accumulating the necessary hours, flights, and skills, it's time to demonstrate your Intermediate tasks to a USHGA Observer. Your reward is the freedom to fly a wide variety of new sites such as Fort Funston in San Francisco , Mount Tamalpais in Marin County , the Santa Lucia Mountains near Big Sur , and Slide Mountain near Lake Tahoe .
The Advanced Rating is earned through time and experience. You will be certified to fly any rated site in the world. Many pilots celebrate with a special flight from Glacier Point in Yosemite . You will become one of special elite who have experienced the beauty of Yosemite from the air. You can now fly Mount Diablo , Mission Ridge, and the famous Owens Valley , home of some of the best cross country flying in the world and a record 243 mile flight.
The Master Rating is a special honor for those pilots whose skills, contributions, and experience place them among the sport's best.