Advice on returning to Soaring after over 20 years

This year I returned to soaring after 30 years (I had got my license at the age of 16 and quit when I was 20). As others have mentioned already you don’t forget what you learned when you we were young. What helped me a lot, though, was practicing on the Condor Soaring simulator before I started for real. If you go that route you have to get rudder pedals so you practice coordination. A head tracker is invaluable, too, so you can look around like you do in real life. Some things are actually harder in Condor, especially flying aerotows and landings. But I had mastered it and started to actively flew competitions as a member of the Condor Club, which is also a lot of fun. That’s great cross country practice and you really learn thermal centering, ridge flying, speed management, etc. I had about 100 hours on the simulator when I got back into a real glider. From the first flight it was like second nature. I had my license back after 5 days and was flying several five-hour cross country flights the next week. I doubt any of that would have been anywhere near as easy had I not the simulator practice. It would also have cost a lot more money. You might invest $300 in a good simulator setup, that’s way cheaper than re-gaining an equivalent experience in a real plane.