Have you ever seen an eagle soaring effortlessly on the wind and wondered what it must feel like To have pure grace and elegance at your wing tips, the world a mere inconsequence far below, the rippling mountains and valleys a playground of endless possibilities. Nothing but the wind in your ears, no limitations or boundaries, a mutual respect between you and the elements.

Being that bird is not an unreachable dream, as so many wingless, featherless and generally flightless Homo sapiens already know - those humans who have had the privilege of sharing the skies with the birds in unpowered flight.

"Are you ready" asked Mark Seigelberg, the pilot sitting behind me in the two-seater Grob Twin Astir pure glider at the Cape Gliding Club airfield outside Worcester. The rope between the Citabria ? our tug aircraft ? and the underbelly of our elegant white beauty pulled taut, towing us down the gravel runway. Picking up speed, the world melted into a streaming blur and our wheels left the ground. The trust that glider pilots must have in their tug became very apparent as flying within 50 metres of another aircraft is not a distance with which many air-babies would be comfortable.

Approaching Queen Victoria Peak of the Waboomsberg at 3500 feet, Mark warned, "We're going to let go of the tug now, don't get a fright." Clunk as we released the rope. The Citabria dropped out of sight, revealing an uninterrupted panorama of commanding rock faces and obeisant valleys.

We needed to find some lift. Beep beep bip bip bip the variometer's encouraging pitch rose, before giving way to the ominous boop boop boop of the loss of altitude. The wavering tones revealed that the cliff face yielded nothing. Then a confident bip bip bip bip and we had a thermal!

Mark launched into wing-point turns (it's called 'coring' - finding the core of the thermal column), the rising air pushing us skywards: 4000 feet, 4500 feet and nicely clear of Queen Victoria Peak. "Whew! I was getting worried we weren't going to find anything," he laughed.

Soaring above the valley, I was an eagle; the world and its worries paled into insignificance, left behind in a place that couldn't touch my freedom.

Where to start

Most gliding clubs offer 'air experience flights' to give you a real taste of what gliding is all about.

If ? or more likely when ? the flying bug bites, there are two ways of learning how to soar with the birds. Student pilots can either train at weekends or join one of the week-long courses offered at some clubs, which provide a quick start to the practical training syllabus.

The minimum age to fly solo is 16 and there is no upper limit, provided you are fit to fly. Costs are kept to a minimum as the qualified and experienced instructors give their time free of charge. The philosophy is that they learnt to fly for free, so they pass on the knowledge in the same tradition.

It takes between 30 to 50 dual-instruction flights before you can go solo, for which you must obtain an Aeronautical Radio Operator's Licence, pass a medical examination and write an SA Glider Rules and Regulations exam. You also attend theory lectures in airmanship, instruments, meteorology, aerodynamics and cross-country flight. You can get a GPL (Glider Pilot's Licence) or a MGPL (Motorised Glider Pilot's Licence), which is endorsed by the Soaring Society of South Africa.

Costs

There are upfront joining fees, but most clubs have gliders which can be used by members for a minimal amount. Flying costs in the club planes are normally calculated by the number of minutes in the air, plus the launch.

If you decide to buy your own baby, an entry-level glider can be purchased for under R100 000. Many club members form syndicates to share costs.

Club life

There are gliding clubs all over South Africa and, while it may be each man for himself in the air, it's a team effort on the ground. Both a wing-man and tug pilot are needed for launches, as well as someone to help tow the glider off the runway once you've landed. A gliding day or weekend is a commitment to more than just your own flight; it's a quid pro quo system where all the pilots help each other out. At the Worcester airfield, there are always two duty pilots, two instructors and one tug pilot on weekends and public holidays. The numbers may vary, but most clubs operate a similar system.

Sitting in the pub after literally having had the wind beneath my wings and my breath knocked out of me by a steep chandelle, stall turn and clover leaf, Ed Verpraet, the wise barman and eternal glider, told me a story of soaring over the Riviersonderend Mountains: "Something caught my eye to the left of my plane and as I looked back, there, hitching a ride in the vortex of my wing, was a Verreauxs' eagle."

Getaway went gliding at the Cape Gliding Club (CGC) in Worcester. Pricing varies from club to club.

Originally published in Getaway Magazine. For more, visit getawaytoafrica.co.za