A Place of Beauty

See Sussex from above

Established in 1930, Southdown Gliding Club is one of the oldest gliding clubs in the UK and also one of the largest and best equipped.

Our location adjacent to the scarp face of South Downs and close to the South Coast is perfect for soaring on the updraughts and lee waves from the Downs and riding the seabreeze fronts. We offer glider pilot lessons and Introductory Flight Packages for potential new pilots. We also welcome visitors from other Gliding Clubs. Find out more by clicking the key links provided below ….

Become A Member

Membership offers a wide range of benefits from learning to fly to meeting new friends and just enjoying a very social day out at the club.

We are an all volunteer club and that means our instructors and tug pilots give their time for free to give you the opportunity to learn to fly.

At the end of the day and after the gliders are re-packed in the hangar it’s time to open the bar and discuss the days flying!

Southdown Gliding Club - Buy a trial flight

Purchase of an Introductory Flight – either for yourself, or as an unforgettable gift for someone else.

The Introductory Flight also entitles you to a Month’s Full Membership of the Club during which you can have instruction, launches and flying of club gliders at the normal club member rates.

Membership starts from the date of your first flight. We hope that you will enjoy your month flying with us and perhaps decide to join the club as an Annual Member.

Thermals out to Sea!

7th October 2019

The first Wednesday of October may have been the last decent…

Angus's 10,000th tow!!

2nd July 2019

Today, our most experienced Tuggie, Angus, popped in and asked…

Congratulations - Paul gets into the British Team .... again!

4th June 2019

We all give our huge congratulations to Paul Fritche for being…

David Clews

'Longest Day' Day - 22nd June: Dawn-to-Dusk Glider launching

31st May 2019

Saturday 22nd June sees the club open literally ALL day for its…

AirACES help to Cadet members...

21st May 2019

It was with great pleasure that Dave Clews (right), on behalf…

Our New Winch ...

19th May 2019

This past week, we took delivery of our refurbished winch from…

When it's raining .....

8th May 2019

...We do Groundschool! Today, it was a pretty wet Wednesday…

JUNIOR MEMBERS SAT Evenings

7th May 2019

JUNIOR MEMBERS - Your dedicated Saturday Evening flying starts…

Empty Hangars = Gliding Fun!

4th May 2019

You could tell today was busy! Our hangar was virtually empty…

Thank You From.....

16th August 2017

John Bell, or should we say retired Wing Commander John Bell…

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Southdown Gliding Club

2 weeks ago

Another cracking Wednesday at Southdown Gliding Club with over 40 launches and a number of good cross-country flights and some excellent local soaring (when the day warmed up after midday). We had gliders passing overhead on their way back to Lasham from Eastbourne (having achieved more than 300kms) and club gliders in the air for more than 5 hours and at heights up to 5000'. Visibility was superb with views across the Isle of Wight to the west with Portsmouth harbour easily seen. To the north we could see the Surrey Hills in all their glory with Gatwick airport (forbidden territory in a glider) basking in the sun!. Brighton with Beachy Head beyond showed up extremely well. All club members enjoyed their flights which reminded them why they choose to enjoy this exhilarating sport. Getting up early to fly on a day like this quickly removes all memories of those dark, dank days when we arrive at the club to find drizzle, and perhaps strong cross winds, threatening our fun sport! A few more days like this Mother Nature, would be greatly appreciated before the winter days draw in! ... See MoreSee Less

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Southdown Gliding Club

3 weeks ago

Back to the Wednesday norm at Parham with 40 aerotows and a goodly number of Trial Lessons. The Grob 109 motor glider was kept busy with some navigation and field landing exercises - all good stuff. Let's hope the weather holds and we get more fabulous sunny days like this before the days get shorter😱 ... See MoreSee Less

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