| April 12, 2025 |
Spring Safety Seminar and Annual Meeting We'll start with the Safety Seminar at 0900 and have the Annual Meeting at 1300 after lunch |
The Chicago Glider Club currently owns 4 sailplanes and 2 towplanes. We operate an "all glass" fleet, something very few clubs if any can claim in the USA. All club aircraft are very well maintained by CGC members and are always kept in the club's two hangars.
The club is constantly reviewing it's equipment needs as member needs change and as equipment ages. This review has lead to the club replacing sailplanes in the past few years; for example, the Duo Discus was purchased in 1999 to replace the Grob Twin Astir that the club had owned for several years, in order to provide a high-performance two-seater as a next step up from the mid-performance ASK-21. More recently, our ASW-24 was replaced by an Discus-CS, and in 2019 our older ASK-21 has been replaced with a new ASK-21B.
Prior to purchasing the Discus-CS in 2018, the club has owned an ASW-24 in 2008, a Pegasus in 1998; prior to that the club's single seater had been an ASW-19, and before that a Mini-Nimbus, which - being a 15 meter flapped sailplane - made an 'interesting' step up for members graduating from the two-seater ASK-21.
Club Sailplanes
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The club now owns three two-place sailplanes: 2 Schleicher ASK-21 sailplanes: Basic training and checkout is now performed in one of our ASK-21's. The ASK-21, manufactured by Alexander Schleicher GmbH, is widely used by soaring clubs around the world as an intermediary trainer. CGC's second ASK-21B was purchased new from the factory in the winter of 2019. Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus: The Duo Discus is quite easy to fly, but it is expected that adequate proficiency in other sailplanes be acquired before soloing. The Duo is a high performance 2-seater with 20 meter wingspan, manufactured by Schempp-Hirth GmbH; the club bought it new in 1999 using loans from members, which have since been paid off in full. CGC members pay only $36 per hour to fly this glider, which is a fraction of what one would expect to pay at a commercial operation! The club's single-seat sailplane is a Schempp-Hirth Discus CS The higher performance Discus CS requires previous flying experience in similar single-place sailplanes and/or getting experience in the ASK-21 and the Duo-Discus. Club Towplanes235 hp Pawnee 180 hp Christen Husky During the winter months skis are often installed on the Husky towplane. It is then used for pilot proficiency and winter glider tows. The Super Cub shown on skis has been replaced, but it does show the club's runway covered with snow. Privately-Owned SailplanesMany members own their own sailplanes and base them at the CGC gliderport. A trailer tie-down area for private ships is provided with sufficient space that ships can be assembled without moving the trailers. The number of private sailplanes, which tend to be higher performance, cross-country type ships, on the field varies from 15 to 20, and currently includes one or more of the following:
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| Effective May 1, 2024 | ||
| Initiation Fee | ||
Applicants younger than 35 years of age
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$900 | |
Applicants 35 years of age or older
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$1,200 | |
| Membership Dues | ||
| Regular member dues | $552.00 per year | |
| Retired member dues | $276.00 per year | |
| Life Member | $0.00 per year | |
| Aircraft Rental Rates | ||
| Sailplane rental > 75 hours* | $36.00 per hour | |
| Sailplane rental < 75 hours* | $40.00 per hour | |
| * No charge for additional flight time over two hours | ||
| Christen Husky | $125.00 per tach hour | |
| Aerotow Rates | ||
| Hook Up Fee | $17.00 per tow | |
| Plus Each Hundred Feet of Tow(Minimum Tow 2000'- $43.00) | $1.30 per 100 feet | |
Aerotow Retrieve
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| Field Use | ||
| Fee to base private aircraft at Chicago Glider Club | $216 per year | |
The following flight manuals are pdf files that you can download and print:
Schleicher ASK-21 (N621CG)
Schleicher ASK-21B (N521CG)
Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus (N57CG)
Schempp-Hirth Discus CS (N511TW)
Christen Husky (N2881P)
Piper Pawnee (N8519L)
Instruments
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Paying your bill is easy... The Club is set up to accept ZELLE payments at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CGC Annual meeting and Safety Seminar will be held on Saturday April 12, 2025 starting at 0900. The Safety Seminar will be held in the morning and the Annual meeting will be held in the afternoon starting at about 1300. More details to follow. |
The Chicago Glider Club address is:
Chicago Glider Club
26045 W Airport Road,
Minooka, IL 60447
The clubhouse telephone is: 815-467-9861.
Please note that the telephone is unattended when no members are present at the clubhouse, and messages cannot be recorded.
The webmaster can be contacted at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The best way to make contact with the club is by email to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. See the Board of Directors page for additional contacts.
Individual members' contact information is not publicly available on this website, however club members can find this information by logging on and then selecting the Member List menu command.
For maps and directions, see the Directions page.
Using ZELLE to pay your bill directly from your bank account is preferred at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pay your CGC bill using either a PayPal or Credit Card Account here:
Our members fly on weekends throughout the Northern Illinois soaring season, and on weekdays whenever one of our many tow pilot members is available to tow.
Typical cross-country routes from CGC go from northwest to south from Minooka, away from Lake Michigan and the Class B & C airspace. The longest recorded flight from CGC was 435 miles free distance by Harold Jensen in April 1962. This was accomplished in a plywood "floater" sailplane, Harold was an excellent pilot as well.
Tracking
CGC gliders can be tracked on these sites:
- Glidernet
- GliderRADAR (clicking on Minooka opens a menu with further options including coverage)
- GlideAndSeek
- GliderTracker (zooming in and clicking on ‘Minooka’ will provide further options including OGN range)
- See 'Club Flight Log' under the 'Membership' menu when logged into the site.
2022 Annual Safety Meeting
2021 Annual Safety Meeting
2020 Annual Safety Meeting
Tow Pilot Briefing
Instructor Briefing
Other
CLGC Soaring Weather and Data Analysis
Presentation to CLGC by Greg Chisholm, December 2000 (pdf 3.3MB)
Chicago Soaring Forecasts courtesy of CGC and NOAA-FSL
The following SkewT/LogP diagrams provide both actual and forecast soundings. The forecast soundings are derived from the actual soundings via computer simulations:
- TI's and SkewT/LogP diagrams: Locate the dry adiabat line for the daily forcast high (CGC is approximately 1000mb's MSL). The dry adiabat angles from lower right to upper left - colored blue, numbered in degrees F.
- Follow the dry adiabat up to the intersection with the sounding. The sounding is the squiggly line depicting temperature as a function of altitude - colored red. This intersection is the top of the thermal for today, given no complications, like clamp.
- At any altitude, the TI is the difference between the sounding temperature for that altitude and the dry adiabat temperature for that altitude.
- One rule of thumb is that a glider could expect to top out at TI=-3 (though many have experienced greater heights).
Advanced Digital Data Service (ADDS)
The National Weather Service's ADDS site contains a large amount of general aviation weather data. These links provide you with direct access to a number of these pages.
- ADDS main page
- Joliet Radar
- Visible Satellite image
- ADDS Metar Java page
- FAA Notams (main page)
- FAA Notams (radius search page)
- National Weather Service (NWS): forecast for Minooka, IL.
Dr. Jack's Blipmaps
Direct Link to Dr Jack's BLIPMAP images - Blipmap and Blipspot forecasts. This page contains 4 Blipmap images - Thermal Updraft Strength, Critical Height, Wind Speed, and Wind Direction. It also contains links to the Blipspot forecasts for the CGC location. Note: You must be a Blipmap subscriber to view all 4 Blipmap images.
NOAA-FSL
- MAPS Java Plot for IL59 (CGC) This is the unmodified version or the version from which the above were derived.
- MAPS Java Plot for Freeport (Albertus) This unmodified version is centered on Albertus for the 2003 Region 7 contest.
Forecast by NOAA's Forcast Systems Laboratory. This link provides 5 plots from the current time. I usually select the region around the drybulb from ground (~1000mb) to 10,000 feet (e.g., place cursor to right of drybulb/1000mb intersection, depress left mouse button, drag up and to the left to above 10,000 ft line). Expected cloudbases are indicated by the following: pressure (altitude), wetbulb temp, drybulb temp, and wind direction/speed.
- MAPS Java Plot for ILX
- Plymouth State College - skewt/logp for DVN - RAOB - Derived from the 12 hour balloon soundings.
Additional Helpful Stuff on the Web
- DynCorp DUATS on the Web
- DUAT.com by Data Transformation
- Plain English METARs
- Intellicast - Current US Surface Analysis
- Latest GOES Satellite Sounding for Davenport, IA - This provides hourly sounding - though vertical resolution is poor.
- Latest GOES Satellite Sounding for Chicago, IL
- Air Sports Net page for Joliet
- John Cochrane's soaring forecast links page for CGC
General Purpose Sites and Educational Information
The following is a collection of sources for the above graphics as well as some selected information sources on reading these graphics.
- Kevin Ford's Thermal Report Generator
- MAPS/RUC Page Interactive - home of a java applet that's really cool
- MAPS/RUC Page Non-interactive - Pick your favorites(ILX/DVN,???)
- Plymouth State College - depicts parcels -- nice size on a white background
- READY Page from ARL where you can get animations and pick the size of the plot (first enter your preferred station id (e.g., dvn), pick a size (900x900), start time, number of hours, Full Sounding or only up to 400 mb, select a chart, and Request plot
- The READY Page for dvn (ilx not in database)
- Temperature Converter from Intellicast
- Southern Eagles Soaring Forcast Page a compendium of web weather sites prepared by Chris Ruf
- Upper Air Data Details- a description of upper air products available and what they tell you.
- Upper Air Sounding Details - a concise description including parcel trajectory.
- The Thermal Soaring Adiabat Chart an explanation by P.J. Kelly of the Valley Soaring Association
- Forecasting Soaring Weather another article by P.J. Kelly of the Valley Soaring Association
- General Information - GOES Atmospheric Soundings Display
- Soaring Weather - Shenandoah Valley --- How to read a RAOB/SkewT
- Soaring Weather - Shenandoah Valley
Created by Greg Chisholm December 1998
Modified by Rich Carlson July 2004
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Chicago Glider Club is located on Bell Road in Minooka, Illinois, about one mile north of US Highway 6. This is about 2 miles SE of Minooka, 9 miles E of Morris, and 8 miles SW of Joliet (about 2 miles SW of the intersection of I-55 and I-80). From Bell Road, turn East onto Airport Road; this road runs immediately along side the grass runway, so please drive with caution and look out for gliders and tow planes. The clubhouse phone is 815-290-5021. |
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Use the interactive Google map below to see our location. |
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