Merlin Soaring Association

Purpose

The Merlin Soaring Association (MSA) is a club with the purpose to promote the sport of soaring with gliders. Based at Merlin Aerodrome in Amelia, Virginia, the activities focus on education of glider pilots and anybody who is interested in that sport. 

Equipment

There are several different ways to become airborne with a glider. The most common way is to use a tow plane. There are two tow planes at Merlin Aerodrome. They are Cessna 188 Agwagons, former agricultural spray planes which are converted to tow planes. 
Currently there is one Schweizer 2-33, one Schweizer 1-26 and a Lark IS-28B2 glider utilized by the club

Operation

Most of the activities are on weekends. Flying a glider is a sport for individuals with team spirit. Although you can soar in the thermals all by yourself for hours, you always depend on your friends who help you to bring you up in the air or come to retrieve you after a landing off the airport. As much you depend on them, they depend on you. That means that this sport takes time - a lot of time on the ground.
We do take passengers for glider rides as time and availability of the gliders permits. The passenger rides are flights with a commercial rated pilot where the passenger is not allowed to take the controls of the glider. If you are interested in getting a pilots license please see our Instruction page.

Cost
Please inquire for the cost of membership, flying and instruction by contacting us via e-mail:

Contacts

If you have any questions about the Merlin Soaring Association feel free to call:
Eric Lambert, President:                    804-745-4250 (home)
Lukas von Atzigen, Flight Instructor   804-399-5558 (cell)