Our club's chief flight instructor recently gave a safety talk where
he reminded us that learning to fly was an educational process that
should not stop at a Private pilot rating. The more you learn, the
harder you work at it, the better (and safer) you are going to be...so
go for your commercial rating... go for the instructors rating...work
on your cross country skills. If you follow this progression, flying
contests is the next logical step after learning to fly cross
country. A regional contest is like summer camp for adults with
gliders. It's fun. It's also challenging. If you didn't like
challenging yourself you wouldn't be flying around in an airplane
without an engine. You will see pilots fly tasks on days when you
wouldn't even come to the airport at home, and they make it around the
course. You will see pilots make things work for them in a glider
that you wouldn't think possible unless you saw it happen. There are
a few contest pilots out there to win, but most of us are there to
have fun, learn, and get better. So work on your cross country
skills, and go fly a regional contest. Then you can decide if you
want to do it again.