What is gliding and how safe are gliders?
Gliding, also called soaring, is essentially flying in non-powered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes. It is not hang gliding, parasailing, ballooning – these are all separate sports. Gliders are built to stringent standards and are built tough. They can easily perform manouvres that are totally forbidden in the average powered light aircraft. They are always maintained to stringent standards and flying is kept safe by pilots observing the operating procedures developed by the Gliding Federation of Australia (GFA). The GFA are responsible to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for the conduct of safe gliding operations in Australia.
