iPilot wrote:
I don't buy that argument.

1. If you look at the recent winners in any soaring title championship, you can hardly find any
fatman. Actually, in order to win, one has to mantain full concentration in long flights during hot
days and long competitions. Therefore one has to be in a very good physical form. Partly for same
reasons why no fatman can win in top car racing league.

I was a military pilot, and I remember we had some hefty (to put it
mildly) fighter guys who looked like they would have a coronary just
hiking the four flights of stairs from 2nd deck to the flight deck on
the carrier. We'd do semi-annual PT, and they were pitiful. Watching
them do sit ups was like a scene from "Free Willy".

Yet these same guys could strap on an ejection seat and fly 12 hour
missions with multiple refuelings, some hi-G dog fighting, lots of
hanging on the blades, followed by a night trap. And they were *good*,
which is why the Skipper looked the other way as to their weight.

So in short, I have some data points that say you don't have to be fit.

You do have to be tough, though. Toughness is a different thing, in my
experience.