I recall the joy of simply staying up! Seeing how high I could get -
even getting higher than my instructor who was up with another student.
But that soon became old hat. Already having an ATP license, I took the
commercial glider check ride and was, for a while, happy with giving
rides, but that, too, got old.

Then I moved to a club which had a lot of private owners and XC pilots.
I recall sitting on the porch with them at the end of the day sipping a
cold one and listening to their stories. The spark was ignited! I
simply had to get my own ship and learn how to fly cross country.

It seems that, nowadays, most people who come to the airport are simply
looking to add another token to their bucket of adventures and move on
to the next. It's very sad. Still, I take the time to talk with each
of them, answer their questions, point to the mountains and tell them
how wonderful it is to soar over there and spend the day enjoying the
scenery, and the wonder of having an eagle fly along side (or out climb
me!).

Dan
5J
choices at my club. Fly Schweizers locally, spend 20k+ on a glass
ship you
don't know how to fly, quit, teach others how to do take offs and
landings
in a 2-33. That last option is the real root of the problem. The core of
our nation's clubs and greatest influence on those new to soaring never
learned to actually soar! Until x/c is a requirement only people with
time,
money, and the ability to self teach will be able to it. (Old retired
guys)...

And the argument has previously been made that increasing the barriers
to obtaining a license (cost, time, etc.) has its own discouraging
effects. Consider your own paradox: "Until x/c is a requirement only
people with time,
money, and the ability to self teach will be able to it."

I doubt the perpetual chicken-or-egg conundrum as it applies to
soaring will (or can) ever be satisfactorily laid to rest. That said,
learning to soar and learning how to fly XC are different - if
complementary - skills. Knowing how to soar is a prerequisite to
flying XC; not true the other way around...

Somehow, despite doing all my primary training and obtaining my
private pilot (glider-only) license in a club having only a 2-33 and a
1-26 and but one instructor (not mine) with any XC experience, the "XC
seed" was planted and took root in my mind even before I'd taken my
first lesson. How? My officemate was an XC glider pilot, and from
breeze-shooting with him as well as accompanying him to do glass
repairs on the gear doors/belly of the Libelle of the one instructor
with XC experience - land-out-induced damage (really!) - as well
(perhaps) as my innately realizing flagpole sitting as an idea seemed
boring merely as an idea, "it was obvious" to me that my PP(Glider)
certificate was but a license to learn without always having an
instructor in the back. Point being that it was the *idea* of XC that
was the crucial part of the picture for me. And the idea cost me
nothing but some enjoyable breeeze-shooting and hanging out time.

I actually obtained my license before ever soaring (i.e. climbing) on
my own, and only once experienced my instructor climbing in a thermal,
so I suppose my second point is that *neither* soaring nor XC need be
crucial elements of obtaining one's license...while the *ideas* of
both, most certainly *are* crucial elements to going XC in a
glider...and opening one door to a lifetime of (good!) life-altering
experiences. How a person thinks, matters!

Bob W.