I started learning when I was 54, and that was certainly thanks to a ride
in an ASK-21. I'd had a couple of trial flights 8-10 years previously in
an ASK-13, but though it was a nice experience it didn't inspire me to
take up gliding. However, and I don't know why, that flight in an ASK-21
in the fall of '99 at Front Royale set the hook and I joined Cambridge GC
in the UK at the start of the 2000 season, picking them for no better
reason than they were the only local club with a glass training fleet.

Just met a fellow at a garage sale where I was blabbering about
gliders, and this guy tells me his story of how he had seen beautiful
gliders for years here and there in movies (Thomas Crown remake?) and
TV specials and such and was really intrigued by them, so much so that
he looked up a close by operation and went to Vacaville CA sometime
in the 90's (no longer in operation...) to finally treat himself and
possibly take it up. He got to the field and was pretty exited, and
made arrangements with the folks there. Then him and his pilot walked
out the their plane. They were walking past all these gorgeous glass
ships that were fueling his fancy -and kept going past them, to what
by his description of what he remembered could only have been a 2-33.
His heart sank, he lost his inspiration as well as his confidence;
enough so that he didn't go through with the flight and lost the spark
of interest.

The interesting thing about this story to me, was how he told it to me
on his own volition, out of the complete blue. I was only talking
about positive aspects of gliding and my own joys etc with it. It was
so very random for him to tell me that, which for me further
reinforces my thoughts about the influence visual dynamics has on
mental dynamics... I've seen other people be this guy, and frankly I
felt the same way when we walked past the 21 and the 103, to a lonely
2-33 on it's own pad, which made it clear what plane we were going to
be using for flight training -and which ones we were not. Yeah I
stuck with it, but it I would be lying if I said I wasn't crestfallen
when I went for the same walk...

-Paul