Flying a sailplane is like...

source of befuddlement to me that anybody could be
offered the chance or possibility of soaring flight and be able to just
walk away untouched or ask "why would I want to do that?"

Umm.... fear for their life? Maybe not rational, but real to many.

"Bill Gribble" wrote in
message .. .
So very well put.

Though that said, you suggest there is no "rational explanation" to the
question of why you would be so drawn to soaring, whereas I fail to see
that the question itself is rational in the first place.

Why would you not?

It's a continual source of befuddlement to me that anybody could be
offered the chance or possibility of soaring flight and be able to just
walk away untouched or ask "why would I want to do that?"

But never mind. My home club is holding an Open Day this coming Sunday,
so I'll get ample opportunity to explore this question and proclaim the
virtues of our art to a curious public, I guess!

-Bill

writes
Why does soaring draw us so powerfully that we will spend hours
preparing for a flight, sit for hours more in a cockpit that makes
Economy Class seating seem cavernous, and come home ecstatic from the
experience?

Why, when we catch a glimpse of a soaring bird, must we stop whatever
we were doing and marvel at the beauty of wings dancing with air
currents?

When someone asked me these questions - actually she asked how I became
involved in soaring, but that is really the same question - I responded
that I must have been a hawk in a former life. It isn't that I am a
firm believer in reincarnation. It's just that there is no rational
explanation for the joy that I derive from soaring, so a totally crazy
answer is closest to the truth.

There is something mystical about seeing the earth from on high in a
glider. Even the Central Valley is beautiful and the Sierras are
absolutely awesome. While logic would say that those views should be
equally impressive from a power plane, the experience is magnified many
times over by being one with the air, dancing with it, using its
resistance in the vertical dimension to overcome its resistance in the
direction of flight. A thermal transforms what is usually thought of as
air resistance into air propulsion. What alchemy!

The experience is further enhanced as we approach cloud base. As we fly
through wisps of mist that are forming the cloud above us I cannot help
but think "This is the closest a person can come to heaven while still
on this plane." So the next time someone asks me why I became involved
in soaring, maybe I'll answer "To better glimpse the Face of God."

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.