why do you soar?

I would appreciate if you can write a SHORT paragraph about why soaring (and
soaring competition if that is what you do) is so special to you. Why do you

I enjoy soaring because it is for me the most interesting form of aviation.
The idea of flying for hours using only the lift provided by nature is
awesome and elegant. It's also the purest form of aviation: radios and
instruments and engines and fuel take a far backseat to making decisions and
using the controls. And all of this with more safety and speed than the
next closest brother, ultralights.

As a pilot, I was always most interested in aerodynamics,
and was less interested in instruments, engine management, complex checklists,
emergency procedures for fire or engine failure, etc. Sure we still have
the necessary complexity of initial launch while soaring, but the rest is
pure flying, in its finest form.

I often find myself sharing a meal with two other pilots, and one or
two non-pilots. The two other pilots eventually start talking about
their most harrowing flights and how they cheated death (and then
they wonder why the non-pilots won't fly with them).

At some point I chime in:
"There was this one time, I got up to about 3000 feet, and the engine
just totally stopped producing lift. I checked, and there's no oil
pressure at all! I thought what should I do? Don't panic, I've trained
for this."

"So I flew around for a few hours using ridge lift and thermals
and then when I got bored I landed back at the airport, drank a
beer, and took a nap in the hammock."

And then we talk about gliding and eventually everyone at the table
is interested and we figure out how to get them down to the gliderport.
In the past year I've taken two dozen friends flying gliders and gotten
five of them to solo in gliders: all had wide smiles.

Soaring for me is simple, cheap, elegant, clean, quiet, and fun.
What more could I ask for in a sport?

In my dreams I have always flown. This is literally true. Throughout
my life I have dreamed of a strange sort of flight. It has always
begun with something akin to a leap or jump. In my dreams, flight has
never been easy. It can only be sustained by an effort on my part. And
so I proceed, flying, yet falling, for awhile and then rising again by
some method I could never quite understand.

I have been a student for nearly a year now. My progress has been
steady but slow. I no longer fly in my dreams. This is true. I fly now
in my waking hours.
I understand now, at some level, how I stay aloft. It is through an
effort on my part that is strange, wonderful, and much like magic.

On 02 Oct 2003 19:37:08 GMT, (JuanM) wrote:

I'm working on a video and a print project on soaring, and would appreciate
receiving your collective input. We all love this special sport, and are
always trying to convey its uniqueness to strangers.

I would appreciate if you can write a SHORT paragraph about why soaring (and
soaring competition if that is what you do) is so special to you. Why do you
do it? What does it mean to you? How important is it in your life? You can
post here or email me at . Let me know if I can quote your name
or if you would rather remain anonymous.

A reporter once asked me that question at a contest. Since he was an
irritating dimwit, I replied "Because of the groupies." He spent the
rest of his visit trying to run that angle down, and went away
baffled.

rj

Random House Dictionary:
"...activity requiring skill, often of a competitive nature"; "particular form
of this, especially out of doors"; "diversion, recreation, pastime". Ergo,
soaring = sport. No question about it. And a great one it is. Yesterday,
early october, 11500 ft over the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California,
2 hours. Last week, same place, 13800 ft., 3 hrs.

Cheers, Charles

(Mark James Boyd) wrote in message news:3f7f31e0$1@darkstar...
..

Soaring for me is simple, cheap, elegant, clean, quiet, and fun.
What more could I ask for in a sport?

Pro football is cheaper. And that includes paying the team. Soaring
is not a sport, it's a hobby, and only for those that can afford more
in one day than I spend in one month. Face facts, not your one sided
fantasy. If God had intended man to fly he would have given them more
money.

Soaring is the cheapest way of flying an aircraft ever, at least here in
Spain.
It is a sport however you look at it.
I'm far from rich and I own a glider. Lots of my friends own gliders. From
12000 ? you can get a glider. With three partners you can cut down costs a
lot.
It's not as cheap as other activities but man oh man it is rewarding! You
are flying, after all!!!
Lennie, if I spend in one soaring day more than what you earn a month, then
you are in deep deep trouble. Sorry about that.
What I spend during a day, say flying two hours, is:
tow: 22?
flight hour: 2x 13?/hr= 26? (renting ASK-21, I own my glider and won't get
into numbers)
A beer after the flight: 2?
Total for two (or more) absolutely delightful flight hours away from noise
and world and common people: 50?
That's what you earn in a whole month? Wow.

I love soaring because I love flying, and soaring is the most challenging
form. Aside from the manipulation of controls, you make decisions on a
constant basis, and there is the beauty. You get to see a bigger piece of
sky than in a powered plane, bigger windscreen, and feel the flight in its
purest.
The feeling when you get off tow and you know you are on your own is just
wonderful. The controls are light, you see the sun, clouds, mountains... all
is one and you fly with eagles... Incredible.

"Lennie the Lurker" escribió en el mensaje
om...
Pro football is cheaper. And that includes paying the team. Soaring
is not a sport, it's a hobby, and only for those that can afford more
in one day than I spend in one month. Face facts, not your one sided
fantasy. If God had intended man to fly he would have given them more
money.

"Jose M. Alvarez" cofamco(a)cofamco.es wrote in message ...

It is a sport however you look at it.

Well, if being grouped with crybabies like the milwaukee brewers and
the packers, and all the other pro teams doesn't bother you.

It's not as cheap as other activities but man oh man it is rewarding! You
are flying, after all!!!

I find that making repair parts for the other retirees, and not having
to charge for it to dump it in my glider is much more rewarding.

Lennie, if I spend in one soaring day more than what you earn a month, then
you are in deep deep trouble. Sorry about that.

You are confusing what I have to pay for my fixed expenses with what I
have left for "fun money". I was spending about $200 to $300 per
flyable weekend at the glider port, plus $300 per month for the
payments on the plane, and no partners in it. But, lets say, $3600
per year for payments, $900 for insurance, $35 per month for tiedown,
$40 for a 3k tow, and an income of $1500 per month, on which I am now
completely comfortable. I don't know how much beer is, I've never
bought any, but rather think I can make a pot of coffee for a lot
less, and rot my brain a lot less at the same time.

However, I do a lot of other things, one of them being music. Two
weeks ago, a friend came to visit, bringing her two daughters. The
six year old sat quietly and listened to me play for most of a half
hour, then got off the chair, putting her arms around me, telling me
"You play the best songs." Find something in a cockpit to compare to
that.

However, I got my first taste of flight in a Cessna 140, in 1957 or
1958. Thought that I really wanted to do it, so when the opportunity
arose, I did it. Then I found that the things that I take as "nothing
special" mean enough that when I had to make a choice between flight
and the others, flight lost, big time. The glider operation just
moved to another airport that's further than I'm willing to drive, so
it's a moot point anyhow.

Ok, I'm not trying to sell soaring to anyone. I've not asked about your
financial details, and could not care less, anyway. If you enjoy more
playing music (wich I understand, as I play guitar as well) then play, and
if you prefer coffe, go ahead...
As this thread is about why do we soar, and you don't anymore, and you don't
even like it, I can't understand why are you posting reasons about how much
you don't like soaring. For my part, I'm with a cast on my left hand (sports
injury, a broken thumb) and will not be able to soar for some weeks... and I
am already missing it badly!!!
Enjoy with your hobbies, we enjoy with ours and everybody is happy.
Incredibly enough, not everybody loves soaring!
If you ain't interested in soaring this may not be the best forum to read.
Just my opinion though.


"Lennie the Lurker" escribió en el mensaje
om...
"Jose M. Alvarez" cofamco(a)cofamco.es wrote in message
...

It is a sport however you look at it.

Well, if being grouped with crybabies like the milwaukee brewers and
the packers, and all the other pro teams doesn't bother you.

It's not as cheap as other activities but man oh man it is rewarding!
You
are flying, after all!!!

I find that making repair parts for the other retirees, and not having
to charge for it to dump it in my glider is much more rewarding.

"Jose M. Alvarez" cofamco(a)cofamco.es wrote in message ...

As this thread is about why do we soar, and you don't anymore, and you don't
even like it, I can't understand why are you posting reasons about how much
you don't like soaring.

My intent with the first posting was to point out that there is no
such thing as "cheap aviation". Soaring is cheap when compared to
other forms of aviation, but still far out of the reach of the average
working man, especially since wages have done nothing but drop in real
dollars over the last twenty years. If there was some way I could
pick it up again, without having to go to a single purpose in life, I
might do it. As there is no way I could do it without going back to
work full time, it isn't going to happen.

Lennie the Lurker writes
You are confusing what I have to pay for my fixed expenses with what I
have left for "fun money". I was spending about $200 to $300 per
flyable weekend at the glider port, plus $300 per month for the
payments on the plane, and no partners in it. But, lets say, $3600 per
year for payments, $900 for insurance, $35 per month for tiedown, $40
for a 3k tow, and an income of $1500 per month, on which I am now
completely comfortable.

Perhaps our objectives are different. Perhaps geography plays a part.
But I'd say you were paying too much. Certainly far to much for what you
evidently got out of it.

For my part, I'm learning to fly as a member of a local club. I use the
club gliders and the club instructors, all of which come within the
price of my annual membership (£220 pa). Because I took their "Fixed
price to solo" offer (£470 incl annual membership) I don't have to pay
another thing until I either go solo or I need to renew my annual
membership (another £220 next year). I just turn up on a flying day, add
my name to the flying list and help out on the ground as I wait my turn.
Hopefully I'll have gone solo by the time next years subs are due, after
which point it's £6.50 for a winch launch and 26p a minute after the
first 10 minutes (up to a maximum cap, can't recall what). A weekend's
flying once I'm solo shouldn't cost me more than £50 tops. About a third
of what you were paying.

Of course, were I to own my own glider, perhaps the costs would be
higher. Don't know. Haven't bothered to work that out yet. Owning my own
glider, as attractive an ambition as that might be, isn't really
appropriate at the moment.

I suppose the only point I'm trying to make is that your extreme
assessment of the cost of gliding isn't entirely accurate. At least not
accurate enough to qualify as such a sweeping generalisation as the one
you made previously.

I'm not trying to be combative. Could be I'm fortunate in where I live.
But it strikes me that I spend more on running my band, or used to spend
more on fishing, or karate or running my old motorbike than I currently
do (or am likely to in the near future) on gliding. It could cost me
more than I spend on gliding were I to join a local gym. So by
comparison, gliding as a past-time is, if not cheap, can at least be
comparable to any number of other hobbies/sports/activities. Everything
is relevant to budget, but the one thing that really grates me at the
moment is that I didn't realise quite how economic a past-time it could
be. I could have started this years ago, but put off even enquiring
because I was concerned over what I'd assumed would be the high costs.

As for reward, I'm a musician, so I relate deeply to your anecdote
regarding your friend's daughter and "You play the best songs". Music,
especially the performance of it, is a hugely rewarding thing in so many
respects. But I find comparing the rewards of music and the appreciation
of a child (or any type of audience, for that matter) to the rewards to
be found "in a cockpit" to be a bit non-sensical.

Called to make a choice between the two, I'm not sure which way I'd go.
Music, probably, because it's been so much a part of my life and dreams
for so long. But the fact that I'm going gliding tomorrow certainly
isn't going to stop me from turning up and doing the gig tonight. It
won't stop me from helping my son practice his guitar tomorrow night. So
I can have both, and am happier for it. The rewards each give me are
utterly different.

I don't know how much beer is, I've never bought any, but rather think
I can make a pot of coffee for a lot less, and rot my brain a lot less
at the same time.

Sure. But would you have as much fun rotting your brain in coffee as I
do mine in beer?

--
Bill Gribble