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.

(JuanM) wrote in message ...
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.

Juan,

The best answer I've come up with to your question (which others have
asked as well) is that I must have been a hawk in a former life.
Kidding aside (though who knows?), ever since I can remember, long
before soaring was a possibility in my mind, I've always marveled at
soaring birds. Whenever I saw them, if possible, I stopped to watch
them. I didn't realize it back then, but I wanted to be up there with
them.

That realization came to me when I finally did learn to soar and
shared thermals with hawks and eagles. (OK, I know there are also a
lot of turkey vultures up there, but "soaring with the vultures" just
doesn't sound right.) I don't fly contests or go for badges, but do it
for the pure enjoyment of seeing the earth, sky, and clouds from a
really very different perspective. Come to think of it, the hawks and
eagles don't fly contests or do badge work either,

Aside from the lack of engine noise, I also prefer soaring to power
flight because you don't have to go anywhere. Power pilots don't just
circle over a mountain, burning 10+ gallons of fuel an hour, going
nowhere. But, if there's lift over that mountain, a glider pilot can
enjoy hanging out there, marveling at the view before moving on to the
next lift.

Martin

Martin Hellman writes
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.

I'm the least qualified to contribute. So far a total of three launches,
perhaps two hours in the air, maybe a little less. But you can quote my
name if you wish, if you want to use anything I have to say in answer to
your question.

Life is a fast, complex, crowded and noisy thing on the ground. You
can't see the wood for the trees, you can't hear yourself think.
Everybody and everything wants something from you. Hanging at the top of
a thermal just below the dewpoint at 4000 feet with nothing but the
whisper of the wind and the cloud dappled sky to embrace you is the
closest sensation to peace, to complete perspective that I've found. The
complexity, the crowds, the noise - all gone. You are simply alive. A
thing of the sky.

Does it need anymore explanation than that?

I've only just started. The dream of doing this solo is still a long,
long way off. I'm naive and a little idealistic. For some reason, it's
taken me thirty years to reach what is only the starting point. But I
can't remember ever not wanting to do this, and have always been baffled
by my earthbound friends that are most comfortable with their feet on
the ground and incredulous that anybody would harbour such a dream and
ambition.

--
Bill Gribble, UK

(Martin Hellman) wrote in message . com...

Aside from the lack of engine noise, I also prefer soaring to power
flight because you don't have to go anywhere. Power pilots don't just
circle over a mountain, burning 10+ gallons of fuel an hour, going
nowhere. But, if there's lift over that mountain, a glider pilot can
enjoy hanging out there, marveling at the view before moving on to the
next lift.

Not in my case. Being only a "renter" power pilot, most of my flights
have *not* been "to" a specific destination, but have been "sight
seeing".

I *have* circled over my house / neighborhood, and golf courses are
another favorite g. Niagara Falls was another site to see, and
circling over my cousin's cottage was another. (Would have landed ....
if I'd been in a floatplane ! g)

Mike

"Al" wrote in message ...
I wouldn't really call soaring a sport, it is the aerobic equivalent of
sunbathing.

Al

It burns more calories than, say, sitting on a boat and holding a
fishing rod, or pointing a rifle at a deer and squeezing the trigger,
two common activities of "sportsmen".

But winter is approaching, by all means let us revive the great "sport
vs. hobby" debate.

(JuanM) wrote in message ...
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.

I will be posting news on the video project here soon.

Thank you very much!

Juan Mandelbaum
"Z8"

It's the next-best thing to sex...
Although a good flight should last a bit longer, and when your done
you can shove your glider into a metal box and forget about it until
you're ready to take it out and use it again.
-Asbestos