Highlights
- A local gliding (soaring) club — engine-free flight over the desert
- The outback’s dry, thermal-rich air is superb soaring country
- Volunteer-run — check the Facebook page for flying days and how to join or have a fly
Kupi Gliding is Coober Pedy’s own gliding club — the chance to do something most visitors never think of out here: soar silently over the opal fields and gibber plains with no engine at all. The outback’s hot, dry, thermal-rich air makes for excellent soaring, and there are few more dramatic places to look down on than the moonscape around Coober Pedy.
The club is volunteer-run, so flying happens on club days rather than to a fixed daily timetable. The best way to find out about an air-experience flight, lessons or joining is to check the club’s Facebook page and get in touch ahead of your visit. If you’re new to the sport, Gliding Australia explains how it all works.
Details here are kept deliberately light until we confirm current contact and flying days with the club — see something out of date? Let us know.
Last checked 2026-06-30. Something wrong? Suggest an edit.