On Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 2:40:32 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Maybe this is a good opportunity for some of us to share some stories of our experiences.
I'll go first.-

Another story:
I started out as a child. I saw gliders at Harris Hill when we flew a kids contest as part of the Nationals in 1955.
Fast forward to out of college and finally flying gliders.
I bought a 1-26D during my second real year of soaring and set out to do my badges. I had literally dreamed of that first real cross country flight for most of my life. Visions of a long distance flight landing late in the day, and all that stuff.
Time for my first distance flight.
The appointed day comes. It is a beautiful day. I prepare and take my tow about noon. I proceeded to notch the barogram to the ground in record time. No give up- lets try again. New record for barograph notch time.
Obviously it was not the time for me to make the flight, so I went about doing some training flights with my sister. We had no problems soaring with ease.
This, of course, proves that the heaviest object known to a glider pilot is a barograph on a badge flight.
About 4:00 I decided to take a tow and at least do my altitude leg.
Having given up all hope of cross country, I managed to notch without falling down and gained about 4000 feet in short order.
A cloud street beckoned to the north east as far as I could see so I turned and headed over toward the Hudson river. I don't think I circled until I got to the river. There I climbed to cloud base and made the glide to a single cloud a few miles past the river. I topped that and made a straight glide landing at Danbury airport, a little over 50 miles from home, but good enough for Silver distance.
After anticipating this flight for much of my life, it was so easy and such a non event that it still is one of the greatest letdowns of my life.
The sense of adventure has remained and there have been lots of rewarding flights since.
UH