Paid $180 per person , as of summer 2024. Not sure if it's the right price here. Somewhere on internet say experience flight is $139. Different club? Anyways while waiting we heard pilots talks- say they went up 4 hours the other day. But when we talked to our pilot he said it will come down in 20-30 minutes. Before we knew it a family member already walked on the runway. They have walkies and didn't even let us know about landing so hoped to take video. Going up is a pull and we want to capture a memory of soaring close to the field while they were coming down. We don't know which one is almost done as many aircraft's look the same. Kids work there are summer students so they don't really communicate. So don't blink. Don't lose sight (which is not possible because they were tiny up in the clouds). Bummer. People there are old men who are very nice. While they might fly daily but they don't understand this $180 gift is not cheap!!! It should be the experience of a lifetime for us. In sum, a lot of money spent but didn't get the best out of it. Understand that season is short for soaring and they want to make money to help running the club. Good experience of this special activity that we have not done before but sure if I would recommend it here. They need some improvements to make people feel special because soaring itself is very special. read more

I've passed by a number of times and have wanted to try it for a long time, so I gave it a whirl. They say you will hate it, or wish the flight lasted longer. I fall into the lasting longer category. After a looooonnnng wait, I finally got up for about a 20-25 minute flight with about 1/3 of it in tow up to altitude. My pilot was a really nice guy and explained a bunch of things. The view wasn't awesome due to it being a bit of a hazy day, so didn't get to see the snowcapped mountains in the distance. Not a huge deal to me as I was looking for the experience. The flight was ok, but it gets hot in the cockpit. stick your hand out the tiny window to get a breeze, so it wasn't too bad. I know this is a club and all, but some organization on the ground is really needed if you are taking reservations and have paying customers. I got on the list, about 4 people in front of me. was told about 2 hours, it took about 3. People were turned away, then new members came and took a few more people. Don't know when they got up, because there was really only 1 pilot available about the time I finally got up and while he had an awesome attitude, the man was hot, tired and really needed a break. Sitting there watching a couple of young club members doing 2 and getting ready for a 3rd flight sucked honestly and still waiting to get up. If you are trying to get people interested and have them paying, you should try to better accommodate them. The "staff" said the previous day only had a couple of people going up, so maybe I just happened to hit a bad day. The overall flying experience was neat and I can check it off the bucket list. I did find that this is not the hobby for me. I do recommend giving it a try if you are at all interested. I liked it, just the lack of organization really bothered me. read more

I gave a glider ride to my husband for his birthday. He had often passed the site as a kid and dreamed of taking a ride every since. If you are uptight about waiting then this is not for you. We had a wonderful time watching and just enjoying the day. My husband was like a kid at Christmas and loved every second of his ride. I am giving rides to my grown children as Christmas gifts! read more

This place is great! Myself, my dad, my girlfriend and my grandma all got rides. Yes, they are first come first served, but that means exactly what it sounds like. They are a club of enthusiasts that HAPPEN to give rides to expose the public to the thrill of soaring, not a commercial operator, so they charge very little, offer a lot and yes, sometimes there may be a wait because club members are also in line waiting for a glider tow. Show up early and unrushed and you'll have a great time!! read more

Our Flights were AWESOME!!! This is a volunteer run club of glider enthusiasts. While visiting my Sister, we decided to call and go over for a ride. We couldn't have been happier, actually EXTATIC! Our two pilots were friendly, informative and very helpful. We both got a chance to take the controls and fly! The ground crew were knowledgeable of operations and keenly aware of peoples nervousness and moods. There were two deaf ladies who went up after us and the pilots worked out a hand signaling system so they could maximize their enjoyment. read more

I had an amazing time at Willamette Valley Soaring Club on my first ever glider ride. They are a club and not a business, which means it's an experience that you have with friendly, knowledgable people rather than a transaction. There are no exact flight times, so just call them a few days ahead and they will let you know what to plan for. All of the club members were excited to be there and share their enthusiasm with other people which made it very pleasant from start to finish. read more

What a disorganized MESS this place is. First, even if you buy a $140 ride ahead of time, you are not allowed to reserve a time, you just have to "show up and hopefully they'll be flying that day". So no matter how far you might be driving to get there, you might be stuck out there in the BFE that is North Plains and a) not get to fly at all, or b) be expected to wait around for many hours. We were told to call ahead of time to make sure they'd be there but didn't actually get the call, ironically, until we the day of when we were pulling into the parking lot. I pre-purchased a ride online for a surprise for my husband's 50th birthday, and drove 90 minutes through traffic to get there on a weekday, because we assumed summer weekends would be busier. When we pulled up, one guy walked up to us and asked us if we were there for a ride, and we pulled out our gift certificate and he said "oh put that away for now" and told us to go towards this group where another lady was talking to a group of about 6-7 people. How many did they have available to take out on rides? ONE. So we were told it would be at least 2 hours until our turn came up to take a ride, and we'd have to wait for the entire group to finish their rides before we could. We had told them it was a birthday, and the best thing they could do was offer to call us when it was our turn. But really, what the hell are we supposed to do for 2 hours? Drive all the way home to the edge of NE Portland and then drive all the way back? Along with that, I have a considerable back injury and there's no way I could drive around for 2 hours after a 90 minute drive there (and during this heat wave, sitting in a hot car was not an option), and both of us told them that. Literally got BLANK STARES when we told them that. The irony was, there was an entire group there and they wouldn't even see if one of them would be willing to let my husband go first since it was his birthday and I was injured - not to mention that NONE of them had prepaid like we had. So we explained to them that with my injury and the fact that it was his birthday, waiting around for 2 hours was not going to work, and asked for a refund. They refused, saying "you can come back another day" and "you can't get cash for gift certificates" and we're like, um, no, it's not going to happen on another day because this is his 50th birthday, and second, we're not trying to "cash out" the gift certificate, we want a refund, which is different. And they again gave a blank stare and said "well you can come back anytime in the next year" - clearly not getting the fact that this was his birthday and driving back repeatedly to HOPE they might be there and HOPE there won't be five or ten people in front of us is not a birthday gift to someone, much less not being on or near their special day. Again, a blank stare. What a mess of an organization with zero concern - and I've volunteered at a lot of messy places in the past. If they were doing this for free that'd be one thing, but at $140 a pop? This is not chump change. Ironically when my HUSBAND called them, they said they'd consider a refund and by the end of the day called and told him they'd send a refund in the mail in the form of a check. (Ironically I paid via PayPal and they could have refunded it with the touch of a button so it'd go back to my credit card as I didn't pay cash for it). Don't waste your time...unless you have lots of time to waste. read more