Joy of Soaring: A Training Manual

Rating:
Summary: Good auxiliary training; no longer referenced by FAA PTS
Review: A good, reasonably comprehensive training manual, easy to read. More modern, less technical than American Soaring Handbook (out of print). For many years Joy of S. was the primary basis for FAA Glider Pilot Certificate testing, and I issued hundreds of certificates based on it; now superceded in Practical Test Standards by a different book of slightly inferior quality (Jeppesen).

Rating:
Summary: Good auxiliary training; no longer referenced by FAA PTS
Review: A good, reasonably comprehensive training manual, easy to read. More modern, less technical than American Soaring Handbook (out of print). For many years Joy of S. was the primary basis for FAA Glider Pilot Certificate testing, and I issued hundreds of certificates based on it; now superceded in Practical Test Standards by a different book of slightly inferior quality (Jeppesen).

Rating:
Summary: Best-loved Soaring Primer
Review: THE JOY OF SOARING: A Training Manual
First published in 1969,by the Soaring Society of America, revised by The Soaring Society of America (SSA) in 1989

In the mid-1960s, soaring experienced a tremendous surge in popularity across the U.S. as thousands of pilots came to the sport. Many got their first look at the sport through Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color" TV feature "The Boy Who Flew with the Condors." Although interest surged, at the time there was no standardized training manual available to student glider pilots, only the individual manuals used at various soaring sites around the country. The "Joy of Soaring" collected and repackaged the very best practices in a readable and well-illustrated format. It has since been superceeded by other soaring texts for the Practical Test Standards for a Glider Rating. Many other specialist publications give detailed treatment to more contemporary aspects of soaring today. This book's lasting appeal as the best-loved soaring primer comes from its practical, readable, common sense approach to the nuances of proficient glider flight. The book contains many black and white photographs of classic gliders. Illustrated by Gil Parcell, who was well known for his cartoons in Soaring magazine, this book captures the essence of soaring during its heyday. It is still the preferred introduction to the sport of unpowered flight. It remains in print, so a reader has the choice of a crisp new edition, or the nostalgia of owning one of the ubiquitous original, used copies.

Rating:
Summary: A must have training manual!
Review: This book is THE standard training manual for sailplane plots in the U.S.. It is very easy to understand and should be in every beginning pilot's library.