Duo Discus glider soaring over Booker Gliding Club, Wycombe Air Park.

Welcome to Booker Gliding Club

Discover gliding Have you ever looked up and seen a glider soaring like a bird on Nature’s natural energy? You too could be up there. If you’re looking for a new challenge, or just an exciting day out, try gliding with Booker Gliding Club. We’re based at Wycombe Air Park, between High Wycombe and Marlow, just off the M40, easy to reach from West and Central London, Oxford and Reading.

Training glider approaching to land

Experience Gliding For a taster of pure flight, or a gift with a difference, we offer trial lessons and half day courses throughout the year. Once you have bought your ticket you can book your preferred date online.

Club's duo discus about to launch during club expedition

Learn to Fly We have options for new starters, difference training for pilots of other types of flying, and aerobatics courses. Once you have bought your ticket you can book your preferred date online.

Preparing for cross country flight

Become a Member We have high performance training gliders, a simulator, a large number of BGA qualified instructors and a mentoring scheme that together will ensure that your flying skills develop safely and rapidly. Whether you want to improve your cross-country speeds and technique, become an instructor or master aerobatics, look around our website and Facebook pages to see what we offer.

Booker Gliding Club
Wycombe Air Park
Clay Lane
Booker
Marlow
Buckinghamshire
SL7 3DP

Call 01494 442501

info@bookergliding.co.uk

Want to know more? Follow the links below to some popular topics.

Find out what inspires our members to fly

Nils

Nils started gliding at his German school’s gliding club and went solo at 15. He considered a career as a pilot but instead chose meteorology. His passion is cross-country.
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Jan

Jan first flew at age 14, she now flies big jets for a living and gliders for pleasure and challenge. She has been a member of the British Women’s team in the Worlds.
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Dean

Dean came to gliding in 2021 and found progressing from complete novice to solo an exhilarating learning experience.
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Robert

Rob began flying power planes at age 16 in New Zealand, he considered being an airline pilot but decided it wasn’t for him. He got into UK gliding when he was given a trial lesson at Booker as a gift and thought ‘this is the life’.
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Richard

Richard is the Club’s Chief Flying Instructor and Head of Training. He started flying at 16, and now has around 5,000 hours of flight time on both gliders and light aircraft.
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Club members enjoying some of the aircraft in our fleet

Glider KCZ coming in to land
Tow aircraft taxiing in the snow
T21 glider soaring in the summer
Club ASW19 glider ("319") soaring
Attaching K21 glider to tow rope
Club's duo discuss in flight
Various club gliders preparing to launch
Nils
Booker Gliding member profile

Nils was lucky to enough to start gliding at his German school’s gliding club and went solo at 15. This was where his interest in cross-country flying began. He considered a career as an airline pilot, and then air traffic control but instead chose meteorology. He joined the nearest gliding club to his university and competed in regional and county competitions. After university in 1995, he joined the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading and stayed there until 2022 when he moved to Bonn (retaining his Booker membership). He finished his PhD in 2005, while working on improving the model used for global numerical weather prediction. Soon after arriving in England he joined Booker and then bought his LS4.

Nils’s passion is cross-country flying, with the combination of planning, judging the weather and opportunities for flights – and he’s very good at it! He has done several Diamond distances (500km), and Diamond height (5000m). He has an ambition to fly a 750k in his LS4, though it would have to be the right day. He has flown in many parts of then West Germany, Omarama (NZ), Boulder (Colorado), Benalla (AUS) and Saint-Rémy (France). He is our Met Man for competitions, and his advice is to ‘study meteorology, you will make better use of the weather available for your flying. Put your flights on the BGA Ladder and on OLC so that we can all learn by comparing and analysing flights.’

Jan
Booker Gliding member profile

Jan had to wait until the then minimum age of 16 to go solo. She started training as a vet at 17 and chose the vet school at Edinburgh University because it had a gliding club. Once qualified, she applied for vet jobs near airfields in order to get a PPL, and  flew tugs at Aboyne [Deeside GC] where she had a share in a glider. After three years as a vet she spent a year instructing power pilots at Edinburgh while getting a frozen ATPL. She flew a number of types before joining BA and now flies the 787 Dreamliner as captain. After joining Booker in 1990 she started doing National and Regional comps, and was a member of the British Women’s team in the Worlds in 2001 and 2003.

Jan shares an LS8 and also flies tugs. She says, ‘I like the club atmosphere, and the amazing pleasure of flying, how wings work, the mental challenge of flying faster, the clouds………… My day job is managing systems, not the same thing at all.’

Dean
Booker Gliding Member Profile

Dean came to gliding as a liberation from the pandemic lockdown. He made a beeline for the Booker ‘Get your Solo’ course, and found progressing from complete novice to solo an exhilarating learning experience. After going solo he enrolled in an aerobatics course, which sharpened his handling skills to allow him to perform complex aerobatic manoeuvres. He enjoys the stunning views and being close to nature, and says ‘gliding is an accessible, affordable aviation sport that anyone can enjoy’.

Rob
Booker Gliding member profile.

Rob started flying power planes at 16 in New Zealand, when he came second for a scholarship and the bloke who won was scared of flying. Rob thought it was a load of fun and carried on. After school he got a job with a part time degree course so he could go flying. Intending to be an airline pilot, he got a commercial licence and worked as an instructor for a year, but decided it wasn’t for him, so at age 22 he came to the UK, met his wife, children came along and he stopped flying.

He’d seen gliders in NZ, when he was very young, but got into flying them via a gift of a trial lesson at Booker, and thought ‘this is the life’. He enjoys the clouds and scenery, he never tires of what he can see out of the window. He has a half share in an ASW19 and also flies tugs. He has a quarter share in a Robin DR400 Regent. He says, ‘Follow your dreams, you only live once so don’t hesitate. There is nothing to be gained by sitting in an old codgers’ home bemoaning the things you didn’t do, you want to be reliving the things you did!’

Richard
Booker Gliding member profile

Richard Crockett is the Club’s Chief Flying Instructor and Head of Training. He started flying at 16, and now has around 5,000 hours of flight time on both gliders and light aircraft. He holds CAA FI and FE ratings, along with a Part-66 aircraft maintenance licence. Richard is also fortunate enough to be a display pilot with the Shuttleworth Collection having joined in 2018, and is honoured and privileged to fly a selection of their rare and unique vintage aircraft. He also volunteers as a Senior Investigator of Air Accidents, and Regional Examiner for the British Gliding Association. Richard works for the CAA as a Flight Standards Officer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society