Tales of being distracted by scenery and/or euphoria while soaring

Dude... Stop smoking that stuff!


"son_of_flubber" wrote in message
...
Like many pilots, I try to be extremely cool and rational when I'm flying a
glider and (such as it is)I enjoy my technical mastery of soaring, and I
enjoy the companionable and endless discussion of technical detail on the
ground.

But I fly in eastern-scale 'mountains', often below the ridge lines, and the
combination of topography, foliage, clouds, shafts of sunlight, double
rainbows, virga etc. can be at times sublime and visually stunning (this is
of course, an understatement).

I've not heard much discussion by other pilots about what they see in the
sky, but I've observed that many pilots are euphoric after their flights. I
suspect that scenery is a factor for even the most aspiring_to_be_macho_and
_insensitive pilots. It's undeniably beautiful up there.

My basic question is this, 'how do pilots balance the cool and rational
execution of the technical side of flying with their enjoyment of the
scenery'? Does euphoria heighten or dull alertness and attention to the
technical side of flying? Does anyone have a tale of being adversely
distracted by the scenery? I'm also interested in the purely technical
aspects of scenery, such as white aircraft disappearing against a background
of snow and grey rock (one of the motivations for Flarm).

Fair's fair, so here is my answer for your review and possible critique:

I try to concentrate and prioritize my conscious attention on the technical
demands of flying but simultaneously relax and let the experience of the
scenery wash over me. I surmise that my euphoria heightens my alertness,
and that my alertness heightens my euphoria. (I've wondered if this is a
dangerous rationalization and that concern is the motivation for this post.)

And here is my tale of euphoric intoxication while flying:

We had some visiting gliders at a fall wave camp at my local field. I
noticed the light maroon colored glider on the ground and I spotted it on
the ridge after I launched. I caught a thermal and headed north to get away
from the crowd. An hour later, I came back to the ridge and I saw another
glider, and this one was painted International Orange. I thought, 'Wow,
that orange color is really easy to spot!'. I kept looking around to find
the maroon colored glider, but it was nowhere to be spotted. Later in the
day, I saw the maroon colored glider on the ground and I got some puzzled
looks when I asked if the international orange colored glider was still up
on the ridge. (Possible explanation... euphoria accentuated my color
perception.)