"Jose M. Alvarez" cofamco(a)cofamco.es wrote in message ...

It is a sport however you look at it.

Well, if being grouped with crybabies like the milwaukee brewers and
the packers, and all the other pro teams doesn't bother you.

It's not as cheap as other activities but man oh man it is rewarding! You
are flying, after all!!!

I find that making repair parts for the other retirees, and not having
to charge for it to dump it in my glider is much more rewarding.

Lennie, if I spend in one soaring day more than what you earn a month, then
you are in deep deep trouble. Sorry about that.

You are confusing what I have to pay for my fixed expenses with what I
have left for "fun money". I was spending about $200 to $300 per
flyable weekend at the glider port, plus $300 per month for the
payments on the plane, and no partners in it. But, lets say, $3600
per year for payments, $900 for insurance, $35 per month for tiedown,
$40 for a 3k tow, and an income of $1500 per month, on which I am now
completely comfortable. I don't know how much beer is, I've never
bought any, but rather think I can make a pot of coffee for a lot
less, and rot my brain a lot less at the same time.

However, I do a lot of other things, one of them being music. Two
weeks ago, a friend came to visit, bringing her two daughters. The
six year old sat quietly and listened to me play for most of a half
hour, then got off the chair, putting her arms around me, telling me
"You play the best songs." Find something in a cockpit to compare to
that.

However, I got my first taste of flight in a Cessna 140, in 1957 or
1958. Thought that I really wanted to do it, so when the opportunity
arose, I did it. Then I found that the things that I take as "nothing
special" mean enough that when I had to make a choice between flight
and the others, flight lost, big time. The glider operation just
moved to another airport that's further than I'm willing to drive, so
it's a moot point anyhow.