Pilot Training; books, lectures, videos
Links, videos, lectures and presentations to help during soaring pilot training
Initial training to solo
Early training books
The BGA student pilot manual is an excellent, easy to read, book that has all the information needed to get to solo standard. All Booker gliding club “long course” members receive a free copy of this book. For other members the book is available for a very reasonable price directly from the British Gliding Association.
Training Progress Card subject briefings
The link below will open a OneDrive folder contining a set of lectures by our Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) Richard Crockett. These concise lectures cover the basic skills that a pilot will need to master before they go solo. Each lecture covers a topic on the standardised progress card used to track glider pilot training in most UK gliding clubs.
Soaring and training after solo
Information to help pilots progress from solo standard.
One of the most important skills a glider pilot needs to learn is how to quickly and efficiently establish in the thermal climb. The best (fastest) pilots are the ones that climb the fastest.
Bronze badge theory
The Bronze Badge requires that the pilot demonstrates a good theoretical understanding of gliding. The Bronze theory test is a multiple choice question paper with 120 questions evenly split across the ten topics described in the BGA syllabus. You need at least 75% correct answers in each topic.
Books and the Bronze Confuser
The book “Bronze and Beyond” is specifically tailored to deliver subjects to the level required for the Bronze Exam. If you have read through this book, and paid attention during your flight training, you will have all the knowledge needed. This book can be purchased directly from the author’s website.
The Bronze Confuser is a (.pdf document) compilation of questions taken from OLD bronze exam papers. The questions in this document were compiled for an older syllabus in use prior to the current structure of 10 topics. Some of these questions are in the current papers, but there are many new questions as well!
Bronze Course presentations
The https://bronze-course.uk website has a set of narrated powerpoint presentations that cover a large chunk of the Bronze exam. In 2024 the following topics are covered. Meteorologry, Air Law, Communications, Navigation.
British Gliding Association (BGA) lockdown webinar’s – Bronze Theory.
Bronze badge – theory of flight.
Don Puttock has created a series of short videos about theory of flight. Dip in to these if you are struggling with any of the theory from Bronze and Beyond.