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 Thursday October 16, 2025

Duration	Gliders	Flights	Hours
Year to Date	3489	47934	55780.29
Last 7 Days	315	989	684

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.

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
Midwest	CFI	None	None	Instructional	Aero Tow	SGS 2-33
Incident Activity	Damage to Aircraft	Damage to Canopy	Incident Date	Incident Time	Weather	SSA Member
Flight	Minor		2023-10-31	0800-1000	Clear	Yes
Incident Description	During approach to landing using slide slip the front canopy released, and broke after contacting the left side of the fuselage
Other Comments	Retaining mechanism was not sufficient to prevent the canopy contacting the left side of the fuselage. Photos are available