Affect of Alcohol (Beer) on Soaring and Soaring Racing

On Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 3:14:30 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 9:05:07 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I know Sebastian Kawa and a few others never touch alcohol. Some racing pilots stay away around competitions. Others have a beer waiting on ice when they land.

Is it just a high performance athlete focusing thing - or is there more to it. I did a search and couldn't fined any discussions.


WH

I don't recall seeing any data that shows that alcohol consumption improves performance.
I have seen some examples of the opposite.
I know I sleep better when I don't drink.
Others may have different experiences.
UH

I have a very good friend that I flew with a long time ago, he was one of those Naval Aviator types, but did not wear it on his sleeve. His ride was an AD Skyraider, and the ole boy could fly. I asked him once what he did after his 12 hour missions flying in 1968 in a pretty nasty place. His reply way always the same, we went to the bar and had a few drinks to get ready for the next day.

This discussion reminds me of All But My Life, the biography of the great racing driver Sir Stirling Moss, who reported that when young he was so focused on his driving fitness and winning that he would not have sex for a week before a race. Then one evening due to some young lady he broke his own rule, and next day we won all of the races he had entered.
ROY

50+ years ago I was flying almost every day in a private pilot course at the University of Illinois. At my best I could chirp - chirp every landing in the Champion 7FC "Tri-Champ". After 4 beers the night before I could no longer do so though other performance measures seemed ok. I continued the study for 3, 2, 1 beers. Same result. I then resolved not to fly any aircraft for at least 24 hours after drinking any alcohol. Over the years this has seriously cut into my drinking.
Paul Paulikas

On Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 9:05:07 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I know Sebastian Kawa and a few others never touch alcohol. Some racing pilots stay away around competitions. Others have a beer waiting on ice when they land.

Is it just a high performance athlete focusing thing - or is there more to it. I did a search and couldn't fined any discussions.


WH

I can tell you for sure that completely abstaining from alcohol for the last 20 some years has really screwed up my dancing. So there are pro's and con's.
GB

After reading this thread
I don't think I'm going to drink anymore.
But I don't think I'll drink any less either.

Nick Kennedy wrote on 2/24/2019 6:42 PM:
After reading this thread
I don't think I'm going to drink anymore.
But I don't think I'll drink any less either.

My conclusion I should drink less and encourage my fellow contestants to drink
more. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to pushing dead bees up their pitot tubes.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf

On Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 9:05:07 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I know Sebastian Kawa and a few others never touch alcohol. Some racing pilots stay away around competitions. Others have a beer waiting on ice when they land.

Is it just a high performance athlete focusing thing - or is there more to it. I did a search and couldn't fined any discussions.


WH

Did any of you guys ever read the book, Dead Doctors Don't Lie ???