Las Vegas Glider Rides

My experience with this company seems to be a reiteration of what others have already said in their reviews. My wife purchased a gift certificate in order for me to have lessons ultimately leading to certification with their instructor, Michael. Multiple visits to the airfield yielded little in the way of meaningful ground lessons and/or flights. Several times I found myself simply waiting for literally hours at the airfield for someone to show up to operate either the winch, or the tow plane in order to get up in the air. The tow plane seemed to constantly be under maintenance, or pilots weren't available, and the winch typically took three attempts to get airborne due to broken tow cables. In all of my visits, all of which were during appropriate weather conditions, I experienced only three flights that never lasted more than ten minutes. While Michael may be a nice guy, he's certainly not organized and doesn't meet the definition of a professional, and the people he would hastily arrange to operate the winch was either his wife on break from her actual job, or another student which made the entire experience seem awkward due to the lengthy wait times, excessive excuses, and lack of real professionalism. Realizing that the substantial amount of money my wife paid towards the certificate was not going to be placed to good use, I politely requested a partial refund that both parties could agree to and find fair. After multiple emails, Michael's wife replied that we would work something out, but after multiple emails and phone calls afterwards I haven't heard anything since. As per the consistent history provided by these reviews, this company takes your money and runs with it, producing mediocre services, if any at all are even given. If you're like me and would like to learn to be a sailplane pilot, I highly encourage you to seek lessons and training elsewhere although it may be a lengthy drive, but at least you'll be getting credible, reliable training in exchange for your funds instead of wasting your time and money. Soaring Nevada in Minden, NV is an excellent alternative, but there are also the Southern California Soaring Academy outside LA, and Arizona Soaring outside of Phoenix.
1 8 years ago (09-04-2017)