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Pilot Training

The Orange County Soaring Association provides both ground school and flight training free of charge to all flight group members. That means that there is no additional charge for flight instructions, aircraft rental or ground school once you have joined the club and maintain your flight group status. See the Membership page for cost of joining the club.
OCSA owns Blanik L-13 gliders that we use for flight instruction. This is arguably one of the finest trainers available today for flight training. The Blanik L-13 is a robust and sturdy aircraft that is easy to fly, yet it is an advanced aircraft with better performance than most other trainers. It is an all metal aircraft equipped with flaps and retractable landing gear.

Flight Instruction

Our volunteer flight instructors are normally available every Saturday with only a few exceptions. Notify the flight instructor scheduled for the day that you would like to come out at least 4 days ahead of time. You can find out what flight instructor that will be there by referring to the Instructor Schedule page. When you click on the instructor's name it will bring you to the Flight Instructors page. On this page you will find the email address for all instructors. Simply send him or her an email and notify him or her that you would like to come out for flight instruction and what day.

If you contact the flight instructors ahead of time some of them will also come out on weekdays and fly with you.

Ground School

Ground school is usually conducted in November and December. These classes are designed to prepare you take the FAA written test required for your private glider pilot license.

Our instructors are well prepared for the ground school classes and often bring hand-outs, videos, maps or other equipment that will help the students. To get the most out of the classes we still recommend that you bring the following:

  • Soaring Flight Manual
  • Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual
  • FAA Aviation Weather
  • Los Angeles Sectional Chart
  • Tools for Navigation, i.e. Flight Computer E6B
  • Navigation Plotter
  • Pencil and paper

A cross country seminar is usually held in the spring.

Classes are no charge to flight group members.