I'd love to write the thing myself. It would take me about two hours.

They have something in mind and I have to play their game.

What I was going to tell them is that in this respect, soaring is like
surfing. It is not meant to be dangerous. Aside from a few shark stories,
paddling out to Mavericks or the big wave on the North Shore, people don't
get hurt or have to "survive". It is a sport involving skillful use of
Nature's power. If they buy that, then I will try to get them to shoot a
real-time expedition. The one I had suggested to them was basically a
run-of-the-mill day at Crystal with lots of lipstick cameras and some
generous person's two-seat motor glider for air-to-air. Then, I don't care
how it ends. It will have the required "element of danger" and it may end up
stuffed out in the creosote or it may end victoriously in Utah somewhere.

Barring that, I could tell the story Bob Korves recalled because it would
allow me to show lots of air-to-air at a contest with the story of a landout
and helicopter rescue. It just so happens that I run a helicopter company
with camera and construction/firefighting ships.

All I want to do is put a young glider pilot and a lot of fiberglass in
front of the public for about an hour and then I can stop tilting at
windmills.

"Chris OCallaghan" wrote in message
m...
John,

The survival aspects of soaring aren't typically after you hit the
ground. That's when everything finally calms down. Maybe the better
choice is to focus on the danger of making wrong decisions in the air,
leading to situations where there is no out. Your only choice, climb
away or impale your glider and soft pink bottom on jagged rocks. A
pilot who went searching for lift in a box canyon or got below the rim
of Crater Lake, then fought his way out, all the time at risk of
crashing into the rocks, might be the better approach. These stories
are so common (relatively speaking) that you could make it up, then
find someone to say, "Yeah, that's me."

Your scripting becomes easy. Pretty pastoral setting. Flight towards
distant mountains. Climb to cross to next valley. Strong sink. Caught
between ridge lines. White water below. Rocks all around. Camera work
showing sharp rocks reaching up for the glider. Pilot risks close pass
over sun drenched escarpment. Begins slow climb. Loses lift. Regains
lift. Loses it again. Calls on radio. "I may be going in." Worried
looks from the folks back home. One last chance. A powerful thermal.
Escape. Now the sun is going down. Lands out on a beutiful, calm
evening. Passerby stops to say, "It must be so wonderful, communing in
nature in total silence on such a lovely evening." Close up of pilot.
We see and now the depth of his experience. He replies, with a smile,
"Yep, there's nothing quite like it."