Southern Eagles Soaring is a private soaring club located in central Georgia at the Butler Municipal Airport.
Southern Eagles is made up of members primarily from Alabama and Georgia.
SES has a Pawnee towplane and a fleet of club Gliders including two 2-seaters and three single-seaters. Many members also own their own gliders.
SES is dedicated to providing glider flight training to our members, from beginning pilots to those seeking to fly cross country. The central Georgia area has proven to be an ideal site for inland thermal flying.
SES is within a reasonable commuting distance from metro Atlanta, Auburn, Macon, Columbus & Montgomery. Memberships are available.
‘Association Vol à voile Champlain‘ (AVVC) is a medium-sized Canadian gliding club located in Quebec, Canada. Established in 1965, the club currently operates a fleet featuring an ASK-21, a Standard Jantar SZD-41A, an LS-4, and uses a Cessna 150 as a tow plane along with many privately owned gliders. Since 1990, the club has operated from the Saint-Dominique aerodrome.
AVVC is a French-speaking club and was the first French configuration of the Proving Grounds – thanks to them for that. Their tasks are unique, (especially their smallest task) by comparison to other clubs, which can be seen below with their task sheet.
Montreal Soaring Club is one of the oldest and largest clubs in Canada!
With a mission of fostering art, science and practice of soaring, to the sport’s highest standards, the club utilizes a fleet of 3 – L19 “Bird Dog” tow planes and 10 sailplanes to deliver on this mission. In addition to the club fleet, there are approximately 15 privately owned sailplanes tied down in trailers on our 260-acre airport. The airfield is home to a 2000′ x 400′ grass strip.
Other facilities at the club include: + Comfortable clubhouse with kitchen, main clubroom, bathrooms, fireplace and refreshment bar + Heated swimming pool with changing rooms and showers + Travel trailer sites with electricity/water (cable & WiFi available) + Tenting area + Gas BBQ (to cook your own food) + Glider maintenance shop
The Montreal Soaring Club is a welcoming and established club with many great members, initiatives and successes. They are located between Montreal, QC, and Ottawa, ON on the beautiful banks of the Ottawa River and a primarily French-speaking club, with Proving Ground support in both French and English.
The Winnipeg Gliding Club is comprised of approximately 35 members and is located abut 45 minutes southwest of Winnipeg near Starbuck, Manitoba. In 2019, the club celebrated its 60th Anniversary and also received two brand new PW6 gliders in that same year as well. The area around the Winnipeg Gliding Club is ideally suited for cross-country as most times of the year there are excellent fields for off-field landings. Flights of 300 kms are easily accomplished in Manitoba with flights of 500 kms possible on good soaring days as well. The best months of the soaring season are May & June when it is not uncommon to experience cloud bases to 9 or 10 thousand feet.
The three Proving Grounds tasks at the Winnipeg Gliding Club are Larry’s Loop, ABBA & M&M. Larry’s Loop pays homage to the late Larry Morrow, a long time member of the Winnipeg Gliding Club who passed in 2019. The task skirts the outside of the ‘Main Area’ which is special airspace within the Winnipeg Class C Terminal Airspace that Nav Canada has granted us use of. The second task, ABBA is a tour of Areas A & B which are also special areas of airspace within the Winnipeg Class C Terminal Airspace that Nav Canada has granted us use of and finally, M&M visits two small Southern Manitoba towns of Miami (yes, there is a Miami in Manitoba) and Morris which are familiar landmarks for seasoned WGC cross-country pilots. We are hoping to leverage the Proving Grounds initiative with our new PW6 gliders to encourage cross-country development within the club.
RVSS is a mid-sized club with a membership of about 60. The club was founded in the late sixties. We have a single 3,700ft. runway right next to the Rideau River about 35 km south of Ottawa. Unfortunately, we are now in the Ottawa control zone and flying to the north is impossible, as is directly west and east. However, we have a special glider zone with a 4,000ft ceiling which must be activated every time we fly. Fortunately, when flying within our zone we can call Ottawa Terminal and ask for higher altitudes within their Class C airspace. Often such requests are granted and we can climb to 5,000’ and sometimes even higher. That allows us to get out of our zone faster and go cross-country outside of the Ottawa Terminal area.
We have a good group of pilots who are eager to fly and several are quite active cross-country pilots. Flights of over 500km are done in most years but to do that we have to contend with pretty rough and higher country to the west and north-west. But thermals are good there so it can be really exhilarating flying. Our private glider fleet ranges from Standard Libelles and PIK 20s to DG 400M and ASW 27. The club has 3 two-seaters including a newly acquired ASK 21 as well as a 2-33 and a Twin-Grob. Single seaters are a Schweizer 1-34 and an LS 4.
Located east of the town of Arthur, Ontario, York Soaring is a large Ontario gliding club with a focus on new pilot development. The club operates from their large grass aerodrome, with 9 runways, and a large fleet of gliders to support members of all skill levels.
For decades, York Soaring has delivered youth-focused training utilizing the largest private fleet of Schweitzer 2-33s in Canada, and delivers training programs which can deliver solo status, even license in as few as 3 weeks for a dedicated student! Ab initio training is also available in an ASK-21.
The York installation of the Proving Grounds includes two ‘local’ tasks to respect the club policy of low time pilots staying upwind of the airfield, and triangles through popular terrain with great landout options, and next to no airspace concerns.
A modern fleet, welcoming clubhouse, year-round operation (winter winch), and home to Canada’s most decorated competition soaring pilots, SOSA takes a professional approach to club management and member development.
Soaring pilots enjoy Southern Ontario’s spring and summer thermal terrain, and are often lucky enough to make use of convergence lift along Lake Erie, which is spectacular and powerful.
For flight training, or cross country/skill development, SOSA is a great option to pursue gliding, and the Proving Grounds stands to help novice SOSA pilots develop their task flying skills in a supportive and outcome-oriented training environment!
The London Soaring Society is a not-for-profit member-driven gliding club. Formed in 1970 by a group of gliding enthusiasts to provide gliding facilities in the area of London, Ontario.
The club’s base of operations is about 30km to the east of London and operate all weekends and statutory holidays from early spring to late fall. They operate four club ships and a variety of member gliders on site.
As one of the smaller clubs in Ontario, they are a tight-knit group that has a lot of fun and enjoys socializing.
London Soaring looks forward to challenging each other on the racetrack and proving grounds starting in 2020, which also happens to be the club’s 50th year of operation!
The Saskatoon Soaring Club is conveniently located 50 minutes North East of Saskatoon in the Town of Cudworth. Based out of its Municipal Airport we are the operator of the facilities and its three grass strips, allowing us to fly most of the time. The Club’s fleet consists of a Super Blanik L-23, L-33, 1-26, and an Open Cirrus to cater to everyone’s niche. We normally aerotow with our trusty Cessna 150/150, and we also own a winch that we use on occasion upon popular demand.
When we are not flying, we are mowing or having a good time in our ‘party bus’ we use as a mobile clubhouse. Cudworth is gorgeous Prairie country surrounded by abundant farming fields and bodies of water, making for highly variable and unpredictable conditions, keeping pilots guessing how to best use the energy available in the atmosphere. No ‘home thermals’ here. The months of May and June come with bare fields and great opportunities for long and high flights, while the summer turns the landscape yellow and green just like our Provincial flag.
Saskatoon Soaring is lucky to share the airspace with the Prince Albert Gliding and Soaring Club based North in Birch Hills, providing the benefit of outlanding airports in case XC pilots run out of glider fuel on the vicinities of each other. Luckily, Saskatchewan is very flat and outlandings are very safe.
To make things better, the Town of Cudworth is a beautiful well-serviced community, with a public swimming pool, water-front camping, golf course, museum, vintage train excursions, grocery shopping, restaurants, and the local watering hole.
We invite everyone to come visit, bring your plane or fly in one of ours and take a stroll through the ‘Land of the Living Skies’!
The Toronto Soaring Club is a bunch of soaring enthusiasts that introduce people to the wonderful sport of soaring known especially for their community, with frequent club dinners, and legendary campfires.
The Proving Grounds is a welcome addition to the development of more advanced piloting skills.
Thanks to our past member’s contributions, the club owns a large aerodrome near Conn, ON which is ideally suited for learning basics and as a launchpad for more advanced cross country flying.
