Gliding in Gujarat

Reviewed profileAchievements, tournaments, coaches and FAQs on this page are compiled by hand from federation, government and press reporting, drawing on Wikipedia — Aero Club of India, List of national gliding associations, FAI — Gliding discipline overview, Sailplane Grand Prix, Gliding and Paragliding in India (Kshamta Bajpai, Gliding Centre Hadapsar, Pune) — ACI badge and licence procedures, centre listings, The Indian Express (via Mahiti Adhikar) — Pune gliding centre transfer to AAI and closure directive, Britannica — gliding: launch methods, instruments and record categories, India Picks — flying and gliding movement in India, indigenous glider development. These are not cited to individual documents: we hold no per-claim source for them, so treat dates, counts and career records here as a summary rather than a reference. Sections we hold nothing for are left empty. Sport pages last reviewed as a set: September 2026.

Overview

Origin: Early aviation
Category: Air
Olympic discipline: No
Paralympic discipline: No
Central pathway: Federation and state pathway
Athlete profiles on SportSupport: 0

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body: Aero Club of India
Ministry recognition: Not currently verified
International federation: Not currently verified
Khelo India inclusion: Not currently verified
TOPS eligibility: Not currently verified
Olympic status: Not on the Olympic programme
Paralympic status: Not a Paralympic discipline

Gliding is listed on SportSupport in the air category. Its recorded origin is Early aviation. It is not on the Olympic programme. We list Aero Club of India as the Indian governing/organising body for the sport.

Gliding has a federation and state-level pathway in India, and athletes selected through Aero Club of India may be eligible for state sports-quota employment and state cash awards where their state notifies the discipline. TOPS does not apply, as the discipline is outside the Olympic programme.

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for gliding athletes in India.

Khelo India Talent Identification & Development (KITID)
Stipend, boarding, coaching and kit at accredited centres for talent identified through the Khelo India selection process (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports). Applies only to disciplines on the official Khelo India Games list, and only to athletes it selects.
National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports fund used to sponsor elite athletes' training, foreign coaches and equipment. Allocations are made case by case; we hold no record of NSDF support specific to gliding.
Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons
Lifetime monthly pension for retired internationals who meet the scheme's medal criteria at Asian, Commonwealth or World Championship level — Government of India. Whether a given gliding event counts depends on the scheme's notified list.
State sports quota and government employment
Many states reserve government and public-sector posts for national-level medallists. Which gliding events and which certifying bodies a state accepts varies by state, so check your state's current notification.

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Indian Players

No profiles yet

No athlete profiles are recorded for gliding yet. We only list athletes we can source, so this section stays empty until verifiable profiles exist.

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Rules

Gliding, or soaring, is flying an unpowered sailplane by extracting lift from the atmosphere — thermals rising off sun-heated ground, ridge lift along windward slopes, and wave lift downwind of mountain ranges. Launches are by aerotow behind a powered aircraft, by ground winch, or by auto-tow. Sport gliding is measured against FAI-defined tasks rather than head-to-head racing: pilots fly declared straight-distance, out-and-return or triangular courses, or attempt height gain and absolute altitude, with barograph and GPS logger evidence submitted for homologation. Competition classes are set by wingspan and configuration, and scoring rewards speed around a set task. In India all glider flying is conducted under visual flight rules unless specially cleared, and progression is marked by FAI Silver, Gold and Diamond badges rather than by ranking points.

Authoritative rulebook: Aero Club of India. Age-group and school-level variations are published by SGFI and the state associations each season.

Positions

Typical roles across air sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced gliding squad list.

Competition pilot
Flies scored tasks under the FAI Sporting Code.
Instructor & tandem pilot
Certified to train new pilots and fly passengers.
Safety officer / launch marshal
Runs the launch and landing sites at competitions.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in gliding at a federation-recognised event.

Sailplane — single or two-seat, from club trainers to high-performance composite machines
Barograph or FAI-approved GPS flight logger for badge and record claims
Variometer, altimeter, airspeed indicator and compass; total-energy variometers for thermal work
Parachute, and oxygen equipment for high-altitude wave flying
Launch infrastructure — tow aircraft or winch, and an airfield with adequate approach
A sporting/competitors' licence issued by the Aero Club of India, plus DGCA-recognised pilot qualification

Governing/organising body

Body listed on SportSupport

Aero Club of India

Aero Club of India is the body we list as the Indian governing/organising body for Gliding, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement of current recognition — recognition is granted year by year.

Origin: Early aviation
Olympic: No
Paralympic: No
Category: Air

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Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in gliding.

Aero Club of India
India's FAI-recognised National Airsport Control since 1950, founded on 19 September 1927 by businessman and hotelier Victor Sassoon as the Royal Aero Club of India and Burma. Headquartered at Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi with 22 affiliated flying clubs, it issues the sporting and competitors' licence and homologates Silver, Gold and Diamond badge claims and record attempts. Before independence it held wide regulatory powers including issuing pilots' licences; most were transferred to government agencies and later to the DGCA.
Gliding centres
India's gliding is centred on a small number of government and club facilities including the Government Gliding Centre at Hadapsar in Pune, sited on the Deccan Plateau amid the Sahyadri ranges, the Deolali Gliding Club at the Artillery Centre near Nashik, and the Ahmedabad Gliding Club. Gliders of Indian design — notably the Rohini — were developed by the Civil Aviation Department's research wing and built domestically for civil clubs and the NCC Air Wing.
Regulatory framework
All glider flying in India is conducted under visual flight rules unless specially cleared, with separate qualification requirements for instrument flying.

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in gliding.

FAI World and Continental Gliding Championships
The FAI Gliding Commission runs world records and international competitions, with World Championships alternating biennially with European Championships, plus separate World Championships for junior pilots up to their 26th birthday year and for women. No documented Indian participation at these championships was found in available sources.
FAI Sailplane Grand Prix
A head-to-head racing format over 200-300km courses with a regatta start and a first-across-the-line result, designed to make competitive soaring easier to follow.
Record categories
FAI recognises records for straight distance, out-and-return, triangle distance, speed around triangular courses, gain of height and absolute altitude — the framework within which Indian pilots' badge and record claims are homologated by the Aero Club of India.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for gliding. The national championship under Aero Club of India remains the top domestic competition.

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International Players

Globally recognised gliding athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for gliding maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in gliding — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

The Government Gliding Centre in Pune has been the country's most important entry point into aviation, and its decline is the sport's central story. It once operated 10-12 gliders and received four of the 16 the DGCA procured in 1994, but is now down to two airworthy machines
Its flying charge of around ₹187 made it accessible to people from daily-wage labourers to students, an access level pilots there have said no private operator could match — and many of its trainees went on to careers with Indian and international airlines and the Indian Air Force
By late 2024 the centre faced closure, with the DGCA directing operations to stop by 31 December and the facility set to be transferred to the Airports Authority of India. Around 30 registered ab-initio trainees had been waiting since 2018 to begin training, and several qualified trainee instructors were waiting to start their instructor courses
Gliding remains one of the cheapest routes to a first solo in aviation — Ruchira Gore became India's youngest pilot to receive solo flying permission at 16 years and three months, and Laxman Kokate of Pune among the oldest to earn a glider qualification
Beyond flying, the sport supports instructor, tow-pilot, winch-operator and airworthiness-maintenance roles, though all of these depend on centres remaining open

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Related academies

0 listed

No gliding academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

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FAQs

Common questions about gliding in India.

Who governs Gliding in India?▾

We list Aero Club of India as the Indian governing/organising body for Gliding, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group and state-level competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement that it is currently a recognised national sports federation — recognition is granted year by year.

Is Gliding an Olympic sport?▾

No, Gliding is not on the Olympic programme.

How do I start playing Gliding in India?▾

The usual routes are a school team under the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), a college team under the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), or a private academy affiliated to your state association under Aero Club of India. Age-group state championships follow from there.

What government schemes support Gliding athletes?▾

TOPS does not apply, as Gliding is outside the Olympic programme. State-government cash awards or sports-quota employment can apply where a state notifies the discipline, which varies by state. Gliding does not appear on the official Khelo India Games discipline list, so we make no Khelo India claim for it.

Gliding in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Gliding in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.