Willamette Valley Soaring Club

I’ve passed by a number of times and have wanted to try it for a long time, so I gave it a whirl. They say you will hate it, or wish the flight lasted longer. I fall into the lasting longer category. After a looooonnnng wait, I finally got up for about a 20 – 25 minute flight with about ¹⁄₃ of it in tow up to altitude. My pilot was a really nice guy and explained a bunch of things. The view wasn’t awesome due to it being a bit of a hazy day, so didn’t get to see the snowcapped mountains in the distance. Not a huge deal to me as I was looking for the experience.
The flight was ok, but it gets hot in the cockpit. stick your hand out the tiny window to get a breeze, so it wasn’t too bad.
I know this is a club and all, but some organization on the ground is really needed if you are taking reservations and have paying customers. I got on the list, about 4 people in front of me. was told about 2 hours, it took about 3. People were turned away, then new members came and took a few more people. Don’t know when they got up, because there was really only 1 pilot available about the time I finally got up and while he had an awesome attitude, the man was hot, tired and really needed a break. Sitting there watching a couple of young club members doing 2 and getting ready for a 3^rd flight sucked honestly and still waiting to get up. If you are trying to get people interested and have them paying, you should try to better accommodate them. The «staff» said the previous day only had a couple of people going up, so maybe I just happened to hit a bad day.
The overall flying experience was neat and I can check it off the bucket list. I did find that this is not the hobby for me. I do recommend giving it a try if you are at all interested. I liked it, just the lack of organization really bothered me.

Our Flights were AWESOME!!! This is a volunteer run club of glider enthusiasts. While visiting my Sister, we decided to call and go over for a ride. We couldn’t have been happier, actually EXTATIC! Our two pilots were friendly, informative and very helpful. We both got a chance to take the controls and fly! The ground crew were knowledgeable of operations and keenly aware of peoples nervousness and moods. There were two deaf ladies who went up after us and the pilots worked out a hand signaling system so they could maximize their enjoyment.

I had an unfortunate and disappointing experience here. My fiancé went for a glider ride in England years ago and loved it, so I decided to get her a ride for her birthday. I had tried to make reservations with WVSC a month previous but they just said to show up, first come first serve. No biggie I thought.
Come birthday morning I call up and ask if the conditions look favorable and if it looks to be a busy day. They said to come on over because the thermals are great and they can fit us in. Right on I thought.
So I drive my very excited fiancé the two hours from the coast (with a phone call halfway to double check that things are good to go) to the airfield near Portland. We pull in and walk up to the tent where the pilots are. They were a friendly bunch, but nobody knew what was going on so we had to wait about a half hour for «the man» to show up. No big deal I thought. After all, what’s a half hour wait for a kickass glider ride?
Finally «the man» shows up. Well, it turns out «the man» is actually a very uninterested kid, probably about 19 or so. We excitedly announce to him that we are here for a kickass glider ride, so he runs off to arrange it.
2 minutes later he comes back and says that «none of the pilots feel like taking us on a ride»
«none of the pilots feel like taking us on a ride»
Really?