The best way of learning to fly is to fly regularly, preferably with the same instructor. That way, your progress will be closely monitored and you will gain from the rapport you develop with your instructor. With this aim in view, we run a Friday evening course during the summer months. Several IBM glider pilots started this way, including Mike Evans, a fully-rated BGA instructor who helps run the Friday course. People enjoy coming to Lasham at the end of their working week, as gliding is an ideal way of winding down after a busy week. However, if your Fridays are reserved for something more pressing, you could join one of the other evening courses. Calm of a summer friday evening at Lasham The Friday Evening Course starts in April. New members are welcome from the third week in April by which time the evenings are a little longer. The course continues through until September. There are three or four instructors on the evening course and weather conditions are usually calmer and more suitable for early training flights. The Friday Course members meet in the clubhouse at about 5.30 pm over a cup of tea, when the flying list is drawn up and the evening's duties shared out. We then move out to the launch point on the airfield, ready to take over the flying at 6 o'clock. Flying continues until dusk, up to half an hour after sunset on fine days. Finally, we pack the gliders away in the hangar and adjourn to the clubhouse for a hot meal and a drink. This post-flying time is useful for going over points of interest, writing up logbooks and, often, a bit of 'bar flying' when some more experienced pilots recount tales of their great deeds! There is no additional charge for joining an evening course. You just pay the normal launch and flying fees. What we do expect though, is that you will turn up regularly and on time, and will help out with the many tasks of launching and retrieving gliders, keeping the log, driving the retrieve truck and so on, when the other members are flying. You should remember that gliding is a team activity, so the more efficiently we run the airfield, the more flights we all get.