Flying Activities at Sackville
Gliding at Sackville
Gliding offers a truly exciting flying experience. Gliders fly in the same way as powered aircraft, though their performance is optimised ( through streamlining and having large wing - spans ), enabling them to climb easily in the rising air currents generated by the sun heating the ground ( thermals ) and by the wind blowing against or over mountains ( ridge lift and wave lift ). Gliders can and often do cover large distances, flights of between 300km and 500km are common on reasonable summer days. Glider pilots from Sackville regularly fly as far as Yorkshire, East Anglia and the Welsh Borders. Gliders usually fly at heights of between 1000ft and cloudbase, which often can be as high as 5500ft in this country. Sackville is the home to a Grob G109B Self Launching Motor Glider (SLMG), a motorised Slingsby Cadet Mark 3 and a PIK20E Self Launching Sailplane.
Training
Currently, gliding at Sackville is resricted to a small number of members flying self launching motor gliders and self launching sailplanes. Unfortunately we are not offering any training facilities at the moment.
Power Flying at Sackville
Sackville is home to a good sized, enthusiastic group of power pilots who fly a broad range of flex-wing and 3-axis (fixed-wing) microlights and a number of ‘Group A’ aircraft. Many of our pilots originally learnt to fly here. We extend a warm welcome to new members and currently have a small number of spaces available in the hangar.
Hot Air Ballooning at Sackville
As well as hosting the annual Grass Roots Balloon Meet, a small but dedicated number of members regularly launch their hot air balloons from Sackville - and occasionally, when the weather conditions are just right, land back here as well. If you would like to join in with the camaraderie of the launch / retrieve crews or perhaps even have the occasional flight, please contact us.