Soaring Safety Foundation

The Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) is the Training and Safety arm of the Soaring Society of America (SSA). Our mission is to provide instructors and pilots with the tools needed to teach/learn both the stick & rudder skills and the Aeronautical Decision Making skills needed to safely fly a glider. We also provide information and analysis of incident and accident trends in order to develop better training tools.

Data collected from Open Glider Network (OGN) as of Sunday July 19, 2026

Duration	Gliders	Flights	Hours
Year to Date	1480	18430	19974.12
Last 7 Days	333	1305	1229

This table shows the number of individual gliders that recorded a flight in the OGN tracking system and the number of flights/hours those gliders flew.

Data collected from Open Glider Network (OGN) as of Wednesday July 15, 2026
Gliders with recognized Airworthiness Certificates

Airworthiness Cert	Gliders	Flights	Hours
Standard	193	8630	7236
Exterimental	386	4616	8063
Other	76	3117	1959

Flight Training
Videos , CFI Webinars , and Scenario Database

These videos are introductory in nature and are geared to learning to soar, or a new soaring skill.

Flight Safety
Videos and Incident Database

These videos are safety oriented and appropriate for glider pilots of any skill level.

Visit the Soaring Safety Foundation's Youtube Channel
The SSA's YouTube Video Playlist

The Soaring Incident Database is now available to help pilots, safety officers, clubs, and commercial operators develop new programs that can help prevent incidents from becoming major accidents. See more incidents by searching the database or register a new incident.

Region	Pilot Certificate	Pilot Injuries	Passenger Injuries	Type of Flight	Launch Method	Type of Aircraft
East		Fatal		Local	Aero Tow	Schweizer SGS 2-33A
Incident Activity	Damage to Aircraft	Damage to Canopy	Incident Date	Incident Time	Weather	SSA Member
Flight	Destroyed		2022-05-15	1400-1600	Clear	No
Incident Description	Crashed into trees during the approach
Other Comments