Clearing the runway

Saturday, April 11 @ 9am

Annual Safety Seminar and Annual Meeting

Our annual Safety Seminar will start at 0900 in the clubs south hangar.  We have several speakers lined up to discuss and remind everyone about our safety culture that we work to maintain at CGC.  That meeting will end between 1230 and 1300.  We'll break for lunch and then resume with the Annual Meeting at 1400.  We will have Officers Reports and talk about Old Business and New Business, and maybe even some Monkey BusinessEmoji.

Below is the real-time status of the weather station at Chicago Glider Club. See the following links for additional perspectives:

 


powered by Ambient Weather

August 18, 2025

The Chicago Glider Club has a new weather station

See Weather in the About menu.

 

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 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.

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.

 

Effective May 1, 2024  
   
Initiation Fee  
Applicants younger than 35 years of age
  • Initial payment with application $300. (Fully Refundable if application denied)
  • A second and third payment of $300 is due on the first and second anniversary of membership
$900
Applicants 35 years of age or older
  • Initial payment with application $600. (Fully Refundable if application denied)
  • A second payment of $600 is due on the first anniversary of membership
  • Family Membership Fee is an additional $75
$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
  • Off Field Cross Country Tows: Rate equal to cost of one regular tow (2000') plus the hourly rental cost of the tow plane.
  • However, retrieve from Bushby, Joliet, Morris, Ruffatto, and Sweedler only incur a charge of one 2,000 foot tow.
 
Field Use    
Fee to base private aircraft at Chicago Glider Club $216 per year  

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:

                                                               

Please note: There is a service charge associated with this method of payment from 2.9% to 6.0% depending on if you use PayPal or a credit card.  This service charge will be charged to the member, in addition to the billed amount, for the convenience of using this payment method.  

There are no service charges when sending a check thru the mail or when using ZELLE.

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.

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

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 Towplanes

235 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 Sailplanes

Many 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:

  • ASW-24
  • ASW-27
  • ASW-28
  • ASG-29
  • ASH-31
  • LS-3a
  • LS-8
  • Discus CS
  • Ventus 2
  • PIK-20E
  • KA-6CR
  • DG 400
  • Libelle 301
  • Std. Libelle 201B
  • Std. Cirrus
  • Lak Mini FES
  • SZD-55

 

 
ASK 21 in hangar   
 ASK 21 in flight  
 Duo Discus in hangar  
 Duo Discus on runway  
Pawnee  
Pawnee 2  
Husky