Coaching Program

The JoeyGlide coaching program is an excellent way of progressing from solo flying to cross country and competitive soaring. Our Coaches are there to enable glider pilots to develop their full potential and achieve their cross country and competition soaring goals. The coaching program at JoeyGlide offers flying with experienced, dedicated, cross country coaches who will help you to plan, navigate, find lift, and manage safety issues, in addition to briefings on the day’s flying, and lectures on topics such as human factors, weather, gliding techniques and technology. 

Sounds pretty interesting, but slightly intimidating? No need to worry! The JoeyGlide organisers and your coaches will always respect your 'comfort zone', and you won't have to do anything you don't want to. In other words, this program is not as serious as it sounds, and you can always learn at your own pace. Your fellow coaching participants will be just like you - probably recently solo and keen to learn more while meeting some fantastically like-minded young people.

Who is eligible for coaching at JoeyGlide? In short, everyone under the age of 26 from solo standard through to the experienced cross-country pilot. Generally however, coaching is aimed at the introductory level cross-country flying, as usually the more experienced pilots (silver C or above) will have the confidence and competence to compete. If it is your first time at JoeyGlide, we strongly encourage you to fly coaching  first - unless you are a seasoned cross-country pilot. That way, the following year you'll be back at JoeyGlide in a single seater showing us all how it's done, rather than getting frustrated because you may not have the same knowledge basis as your friends who have flown coaching before.

The style of coaching at JoeyGlide is to briefly teach you the relevant theory, and then have you try it for yourself. Your coach will be on-hand (literally behind you) to offer support and encouragement while answering your questions along the way. For those coaching participants who are less experienced, we generally try to pair you with a coach who is also an instructor, so they can help you with some more general training aspects if required.

The GFA, the AJGC and our sponsors all put money towards minimising the cost of the coaching program. This makes coaching at JoeyGlide more affordable, and as a result we do appreciate coaching participants helping out during the competition. This usually includes running wings or ropes on the grid (when you aren't flying), and helping with evening catering efforts, for example.

Coaching at JoeyGlide is a fun and safe way to improve your cross-country and competitive ability, while meeting like-minded junior pilots just like you. It doesn't get any better!

We hope to attract Juniors with an interest in cross-country flying, who are not yet confident to have a go for themselves. If that's you, come along and have some adventure, some challenge and a lot of fun!