For me, the desire to fly in contests was part of the desire to fly
with some of the best pilots in my club and the rest of the US. I
wanted to know what they knew and fly as well as they could. One of
the really interesting things about soaring is that it is one of the
only true places in aviation where true competitions exist. Buying a
60+ year old mustang to race at Reno is not a race, it's a museum
piece. Soaring has new developments and the skill of the pilot is
often the deciding factor: just the right mix between brains and
wallet.

After wanting to get into XC flying though, the thing that actually
empowered me to do it was the mentoring. Our club had a good XC ship
(Cirrus) that I used to cut my teeth on and figure out just how much I
didn't know. This lead to me learning from my betters and ultimately
getting a better ship. But even at Parowan, if no one from my club
had come up, I would never have gone by myself. The help from others
at El Tiro that went to Parowan was crucial to me going to my first
contest. The experienced contest fliers helped me know what to
expect, what to bring and how to prepare - everything from setting up
my GPS equipment to showing me how to use my O2 bottle.