Agree with all the previous.
I tend to compare powered flying to motorboating, and gliding to sailing.
With a motor boat you go somewhere, and have a reasonable expectation of arriving there as planned. And the journey itself is relatively uninteresting, although the view is great. With sailing, you’ve busy all day. Looking at the weather, wind, cloud patterns, waves. Will I make it or do I need another tack? Which way ‘round that island should I go, where is the wind optimal? It’s a sport, not a mode of transport. But at the end of the day most sailboats end up at the same dock where they left that morning.
I agree with what has been said about the skill improvement with gliding and it is a wonderfull thing to be flying for hours with only the lift you find to keep you airborne…………………. Just Spare me the UK gliding club politics.
I did look at gliding early on, shortly after starting the PPL, but found that the “setup” was really a bit like a sailing club i.e. you were expected to sit there and help out the whole day and preferably the whole weekend. You could not just turn up, have a flight, and go back home.
I think you have tried the wrong club. :-)
The reality is to some degree the same for both mind you – if you have your own then it is a different scene from renting, and more pronounced for gliding and sailing compared with powered GA because there is more prep. and post activity.
This guy sums it up nicely, and he flies the 747 for a living. I often use the comparison with boats too!
I learnt on gliders first, and stuck it for a number of years, I loved the flying, and even the long days at the club, but the politics beat me in the end. The club was effectively taken over by one instructor, his family, and their clique. The long established members were steadily forced out or drifted away. People who had put the club on a firm financial footing were replaced by yes men to the new “boss”.
The club no longer exists. No surprise.
I started as glider pilot 33 years ago and accumulated some 300 flight hours during 7-8 years. However, all my knowledge about aerodynamics, flying technique and meteorology is rooted there. It was great experience and if I the clock could be turned back I would do the same. I have a fried who started flying with me and who is gliding instructor so I have open invitation to join him any time – the only problem is time 
I started as a glider pilot, and still I am flying a (self-launch capable) glider. After that, I also got my PPL and now I’m learning to get my EIR/CB-IR. I definitely think both kinds of flying complement each other.
I believe glider pilots, especially those who are flying cross country, have to have additional skills. Among others stick & rudder flying (steep turns!), judging the weather which clouds are ‘usable’, where to find ‘blue thermals’ etc. For those who are flying in the Alps, using mountain waves and ridges, that’s particularly a skill apart. That’s not something I do myself however. Also a self launch in a glider is more challenging than a take-off in a SEP.
Gliding does take place in a club scene, but that does not mean that VFR touring isn’t possible. This year, participating in an European contest, we flew 2500 kilometers VFR from the Netherlands to two turnings points in North and South Poland. Very challenging and rewarding I must say.
I considered most of my PPL training, especially the cross country part of it, therefore to be a non-event. Not so for the Practiced Forced Landings however. Having done outlandings in a glider, my PPL instructor assumed that I could easily do the PFLs. I considered them to be very hard, and I needed to learn to judge that entirely different than an outlanding in a glider.
However, the opposite is also true. For instance, there’s glider pilots that do not use RT often, and are therefore not entirely comfortable with ATC or flying through CTRs. So both types of flying complement each other. The only problem is to find sufficient time to do both….
I agree with all of the above (haven’t read it all, but ) Did my first solo in a glider when I was 16. Another thing is glider towing. You learn to fly precise, even in turbulence and with a novice pilot behind trying to get you down + you get a million landings. Most people flying gliders do it to fly gliders, not to improve some other skills though. Gliding takes time, one “session” lasts at least a day, usually a week end, while powered flying can be done “in between” a tight schedule.
For a glider pilot every landing is an “emergency landing”. If I would start flying again, I’d fly gliders for one year, and if my son/daughter ever wanted to fly – that’s what I’d recommend.
I concur with @Flyer59 and @Emir. I started gliding at age 17 with the normal subsidy every kid would then get from French ministry of youth and sports (in 1980). We flew on French government gliders, towed by French government tow planes, all lent to our club for free. It cost nothing and you learnt to fly properly, the hard way. The CFI, a former French Air Force NCO, would slap your head from behind (instructor seats behind you) if the ball or wool string wouldn’t remain in the middle, or tell you you’d kill yourself if you showed up unstabilized, too high or too low on final.
Then when these guys would let you fly solo, you knew you were ready.
Then you learn cross country glider flying and your mind keeps processing flight data in the background, for instance constantly looking for a place suitable for out landing and figuring out surface wind and landing pattern, “just in case”.
These are lessons you always remember and best practices you’ll always apply.
I started flying gliders, fell in love with aviation, got CPL(still searching for a job…) and now fly tug plane and open class glider if my tug plane is not required. There are good things and bad things. 1. If you are not super rich you have to invest a lot of time. If you want to achieve something I would say you have to invest all your free time. 2. Modern gliders are very expensive. Several times more expensive than an average used SEP. 3. Out landings are pain. It’s not to bad if your fly 15m sailplane but with others not so much fun especially older ones. I probably will have medical(spine) issues if i try to disassembly my glider somewhere in the field. 500 km round trip with the trailer is not a fun either. Every good glider pilot I know severely damaged or destroyed at least one sailplane… During one competition for example 5 gliders were damaged. There is an option to have an engine but that’s also very expensive and not always reliable. Polish pilot with an engine got killed recently… 4. It can be boring after some time if you don’t fly en route(tasks). I find flying tug plane more interesting – more action. I would say flying modern airplane IFR in a busy airspace is more interesting than flying a glider. 5. Airspace is usually very restricted and you just have a patch where you can fly… 6. It’s more fun than flying C150 :)
