Modest performance gliders & What the sport of Soaring means to each of us.
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 21:28:11 GMT
From: Wayne Albus
Newsgroup: rec.aviation.soaring
First let me
tell you a little about who we are. My name is Wayne and I live in a small Northwest Ohio
community (39,000 aprox. pop.) with my wife Nannette and my two children Kristy (age 17)
and Neil (age 14).
I would just like to make a few comments on my
thoughts about modest performance gliders like the Schweizer 1-26 and the PW-5.
To lay some background of where I'm coming from.
I'm currently an arm chair pilot (due to financial reasons) and have never been a pilot
yet. I've always wanted to fly ever since I was a little kid. I have an affection for
aviation, flying gliders in particular. I became interested in this way back in grade
school. I've had a few training flights in high performance German made aerobatic gliders
(incredible experience). I plan to further pursue this new horizon once my children are
grown, when I have more time and money.
I want to fly now but I have other commitments (a
family, two kids approaching college) first. Someday I hope that dream will come true.
When and if it does I hope to someday have my own glider. I will not be able to afford a
new Discus or LS-8 or what ever.
But I've been lurking in this newsgroup and doing a
lot of reading on everything I can get my hands on on soaring. And I think I have learned
a few things. First if you can't afford a discus you don't need it, and it won't make you
any less of a pilot if you don't have it. We talk so much about the performance aspect of
this sport that we hear very little at times about what brought us to this activity.
I know why I want to fly, because it's fun! The
thrill that I get from flight! To see the sheer beauty of the world below me! To use
elements of nature that God has provided (that some people don't even know exist or think
about). To be able to use my wits, to challenge myself. Those things exist wether your
flying a 1-26 or a discus. There is challenge & there is humiliation and or rewards at
every level of soaring.
I get defensive when I see people bashing
Schweizers. They were designed to fill a certain need/aspect of soaring and they still do
today, the sheer number of them still flying atest to that.
I try to keep an open mind cause if and when I
start flying I don't know how much of a glider I'm going to want. I don't know how much
I'm going to grow in this sport, and in which direction.
People are going to come into this sport from all
walks of life. But it's a fact that a few of them are like me. Middle aged and having
filled their other commitments first.
Well, this is one American who is done rambling
now.
Wayne Albus
E-Mail: walbus_no_spam@bright.net
(Remove the _no_spam in my address to reply)
Http://www.bright.net/~walbus