Our Club

The ESC club is located just north of Chipman, which is about 40 minutes drive east of the city on Highway 15, or take the Chipman turn-off from Highway 16 about 10 km east of Elk Island Park (Highway 834). We operate mostly weekends from spring thaw until winter freeze. Mid-week flying is available too! See the Map for directions.

We are people, all volunteers, who enjoy a common love of soaring. The ESC was incorporated in 1957 as a non-profit society. Our club can teach you how to fly gliders, and rent gliders to you when you are licensed for your ongoing enjoyment. Some members purchase a share of a sailplane to increase their enjoyment.

Most importantly, we are all volunteers. Our instructors, our tow pilots, our club executive, the people who work on the flight line getting gliders ready to fly. This helps to keep costs down - you do not pay for instruction. Membership fees are used to maintain our facilities.

Some of the things we do include:

The Edmonton Soaring Club is a member of country and world-wide Soaring Organizations. In Canada there are approximately 40 gliding clubs, with over 1300 active pilots. The Soaring Association of Canada is the national organization that supplies common safety, training standards, insurance, and administration to all gliding clubs. We also work very closely with The Alberta Soaring Council.

In Alberta there are a number of other clubs, in Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, Central Alberta, and Calgary. We get together for several events each year.