I certainly agree that soaring is not for everyone.

It certainly has the disadvantage that you can't just drive out the
airport and do a four hour flight any day of the week. On the other
had 90% of my flights are in excess of 3 hours. However due to my work
schedule I only fly a few days a year from my local airport. So I
often take a week or 2 weeks off to go to some Ideal soaring sites
for soaring contests or Safaris. On these trips I can easily do 25
hours per week of flying.

Accessablity is also another issue in that you often have to drive
quite a ways to get to soaring site. I don't live anywhere near a
glider port, I would have to drive over 300 miles to rent a glider.
But we have arranged for years with our local FBO's to get glider
tows. Soaring isn't for people that can not make time for it. A
soaring flight is often an all day event. As with most things though
it is the simple trade off of time vs Money. For getting a glider
rating.. If you don't have time you pay your money and go to a
commerical operation to get you rating in a few days. If you don't
have money you take your time and commute to a club operation where
you can volunteer you time and take a few months to get you rating.
For Soaring... If you don't have money you either rent or buy a
$7,000 glider and commute to a gliderport to glider tows. If you
don't have time you buy a $80,000 motor glider and self launch from
your local airport.

Of course there all kinds of compromises and and variations of in
between costs.

Jay could easily fly sailplanes if he wanted to. He already has an
adequate tow plane and a tow pilot available. There would be some
initial costs or course. But he has decided this not what he really
wants to do at this time, and that is just fine.

I can also agree that getting a private license in a glider can be an
expensive. In fact I often recommend prospective glider pilots to get
either time in power or a Private power license so they can transition
to gliders rather than do it from scratch. I have often figured that a
person could get a glider and power rating for about the same cost as
getting just a glider rating. There are exceptions of course. I train
many more power pilots than I do glider pilots.

My pet peeve is when both glider and power pilots say the flying
gliders is to expensive. These are the same power pilots that then go
get into a $60,000 airplane. The argument I often see from glider
pilots is that if we can afford a glider then we should be able to
afford a Transponder or 406 ELT or ADS B etc. Many of these cost more
than my Annual Soaring Budget and often more the 10% of the value of
my glider.
As I previously stated Soaring can be expensive but it doesn't have to
be. It does usually require more time commitment than power aircraft.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL