On May 19, 5:40*pm, "Morgans" wrote:
As a student pilot, thinking more about gliders lately, I started reading
this group. *I can't help but notice that talk of contests seems to dominate
the subjects here.

I think I would enjoy gliders just for the fun of flying, and seeing what
you could do individually, and for the beauty of silent flight. *Is it so
necessary to fly in contests to have fun?

How many people here just fly gliders without flying contests?

Role-Call?

Fly mostly in contests -

Fly occasionally in contests -

Never fly in contests -

Where do you all stand? *Curious, I guess.
--
Jim in NC

I fly occasionally, about once a year (all the budget or wife will
stand for now).
At both my current and previous club there was a fair contingent of
contest
pilots, some of whom did have or do have fair success at them (one old
buddy
won several days at the last Worlds). At both clubs I'd say about
20-25% of
the pilots do or did fly in contests. Most of the pilots who fly
cross country
wind up at contests sooner or later.

However, at a nearby club most (if not all) of the pilots fly cross
country, but
none that I know of fly in contests (other than OLC).

When I started out (at a commercial operation), only the guy in charge
had
contest experience (he won some contests in the days when a 1-23 was a
hot ship). Mostly I heard grumbling that the cost of a competitive
ship was
out of reach -- that contest flying had become a money spending
contest.
Most pilots in the bunch aspired to cross country flying, but none
did.

After a few years off I came back at a large club. There were a
number of
accomplished contest pilots there, plus club ships were available for
cross country flying. Also, Sports Class got started by then, which
made contest flying much more affordable. The final nail in the
coffin came
when our club hosted a regional contest. Watching 50 gliders get
launched
in 40 minutes hooked my interest for good.

Not long after that I got transferred elsewhere, and the new club
didn't have
any cross country ships in its inventory. After about 8-10 years we
had
an L33 available, and I started flying cross country in it. Then, we
had a 304
available as well. I've taken both ships to contests. The
experience is
well worth the effort.

-- Matt