With all the talk of the credit crunch, fuel prices soaring and house values plummeting, it is easy for life's day-to-day grind to get you down.

But all these anxieties can seem minuscule when you are gracefully gliding through the air at 3,000 feet in near silence.

How can you feel stressed when you are looking down on a beautiful panoramic vista of the lush green Norfolk countryside?

How can you feel anxious when the source of your tensions looks no bigger than a pin prick on the earth?

When you're sitting on top of the world, all your worries seem minute.

These were the cathartic feelings that swept over me on my first taste of gliding, above Tibenham Airfield with the Norfolk Gliding Club.

It was a welcome treat, after fears on the days approaching my flight, that I would never get off the ground.

Weather plays an important part in most sports but in few is it as significant as it is in gliding.

With no engine to keep you airborne, you have to make sure Mother Nature is in the right mood to keep you in the sky.

The trick of staying up is to find air rising, quicker than you're coming down.

Gliders in areas blessed with hills and mountains can rely on wave and ridge lifts to keep them airborne but due to the distinct lack of either on the Norfolk landscape, it is all about the thermals and not the sort you put on your feet in the winter.

Thermals are the streams of rising air that are formed on the ground through the warming of the surface by the sun, rising up to, normally, form clouds.

Once a thermal is encountered, the pilot usually flies in circles to keep the glider within the thermal, to gain altitude before flying off towards the next thermal and towards their destination.

Although the Norfolk Gliding Club, based at Tibenham Airfield, is open for flying 365 days a year, their prime season is the summer months but with the great British weather this cannot be relied upon.

Norfolk Gliding Club is one of just a handful of clubs in the UK which hosts the sport's big national competitions. But in nine days of this year's national open championships, they only flew on five days.

This was an improvement though on the last two years, when other competitions averaged two days out of nine.

The enemies of gliding are low cloud, very strong winds (of more than 30mph) and, more commonly, rain. The favourite phrases in the sport are 'you should have been here yesterday' and 'it's going to be good tomorrow'.

So I gave little thought to how I felt about being thousands of feet off the ground, with no engine, as I suspected my morning at the club would be about the theory, rather than the practical experience of
the sport.

Norfolk Gliding Club have about 200 members and next year will celebrate the 50th anniversary since their formation.

They are based at the Tibenham Airfield, which is a former Second World War bomber base, which was the home to hundreds of US pilots for two years under the command of the late Hollywood legend James Stewart.

Despite their vast site, the club's vice-chairman Tony Griffiths admits they are somewhat of a hidden gem.

"There are an awful lot of people that have an interest in flying and don't even realise we're here, despite the publicity we put out," said Tony, 64, who has been gliding for three decades.

"It is sometimes difficult to appreciate that you can drive past this airfield within half-a-mile and not realise it is here, despite the fact it is 200 acres."

Tony admits for the club to survive it has to be run like a business.

Trial lessons start at £90 and if the new starters get a taste for flying, they can go on courses ranging from half a day to five days whenever they wish with the club's full-time instructor Mick Hughes

The next thing I know I am told my instructor is ready to fly and I'm having a parachute strapped to my back.

Parachute? I was so sure that we would not be leaving the ground that I had not given any thought there may be any risk involved in gliding. My instructor Jan Atherton assures me there is nothing to worry about and she has never needed to use one in 15 years of gliding.

Jan, 38, diligently runs through all the dials and levers in the cockpit of the Grob 103 two-seat training glider we're going up in, but my mind is still thinking about the lack of engine and how these thermal things work.

"If there is one thing you take from this flight, the most important thing in gliding is look out," concludes Jan.

I reassure myself that while I am at the front of the cockpit, my instructor will be doing all the work sitting behind me.

I just have time to ask where the sick bag is and we're ready to go.
There are two methods of launching a glider at Tibenham, an aerotow and a winch launch.

An aerotow is where the glider is towed up by an aircraft to a height of 2,000-3,000 and released.

With a winch launch, a long steel cable is attached to the glider, which is drawn in by a winch three-quarters of a mile away – as it is drawn in, the glider lifts up.

We have an aerotow and within seconds of the plane starting, we are gently lifting off the ground.

Our glider is taken up to 3,000ft and we're released. My initial fears of nausea are soon replaced with a feeling of wonderment.

It is always exciting to look out of a plane's window when you go holiday but this experience far exceeds it.

In a glider you have a transparent cockpit and almost a 360 degree view of the landscape and, because of the lack of engine, you can enjoy it in tranquillity.

The scenic countryside beneath me looks like a setting from a child's Lego set.

Jan gives me a gentle reminder to keep a look out for other aircraft, rather than just gawping at the substantial country homes and their accompanying tennis courts.

We look for thermals, including flying over the nearby malting which gives us a few updrafts of steam, but the weather is not suitable for a cross country jaunt.

We keep close to the airfield where I'm shown the effects of the controls and a demonstration of what to do if you stall.

Then it is my turn to take the control stick, which I make sure I do as instructed, with a soft two fingers and thumb, rather than a tight
full-fist grip.

By pushing the stick forward it lowers the glider's nose and we pick up speed and when I move it back the nose rises and we decrease speed.

Anxious not to send us plummeting to our doom, I take Jan's advice to move the controls delicately, rather than imaging it as a 1980s' computer joystick.

As exciting as it, I'm relieved to hear she will taking over for the landing.

Within seconds we are descending and before I know it, the glider kisses the runway with a smooth landing.

My experience of feeling free as a bird are over and it is back to all
the stresses and strains that life brings on the ground.

Factfile
* Club: Norfolk Gliding Club.
* Address: Tibenham Airfield, Tibenham, Norfolk, NR16 1NT.
* Telephone number: 01379 677207.
* Website: www.norfolkglidingclub.com
* Trial lessons: Start at £90.