Hi Walt -

I see you're getting a lot of responses and more than a few opinions
(always the case here on RAS; and not necessarily a bad thing). I was
where you were at about 2.5 years ago, so (like Brian) let me make a
few suggestions as someone who's "been there" recently:

1) UH's advice is good. Learn to thermal really really well. Even if
it means taking local flights a little more than you want. As long as
there are a few house thermals within 3 - 5 miles of your home
airport, its valuable practice. Don't be afraid to try working weak
lift - especially near the end of your flights (but NOT after you've
decided you need to come in for a landing - always cut off at a
reasonable altitude, and commit to that decision).

2) Read, read, read. Bob Wander (and others) have some really good
books about Thermals and Cross-country soaring. You don't need to
read about competitions or racing yet (although they are cool)... But
find some books that you can read and enjoy, to help you learn how to
prepare for cross-country flights. If you have time, learning more
about weather is good (again, there are some glider-oriented books
about this topic).

3) If you are good with computers, the Condor Soaring simulator is
good for practicing XC flights (and there's a PDA inside your cockpit
in that simulator, too). I recommend buying rudder pedals and a
TrackIR (head tracking so you can "look around" in the game and do a
proper visual scan) - but that requires a couple of hundred $$
investment. I think its a good investment, but I realize that not
everyone can afford it.

4) Once you are ready to fly XC and use a PDA/computer, you will find
that your personal preferences and style matter a LOT. Everyone has
an opinion on hardware or software; but the important thing is to try
a bunch of different things and figure out what works best for you.
For example: Brian likes text and almost no moving map. I like a big
moving map and almost no text. We both make it work - the difference
is style. He finds it easier to "read" numbers, whereas I am able to
interpret colors and symbols quickly.

The bottom line is that setting up a PDA takes work. Not just in
buying the hardware and software, but in figuring out how to configure
the program with the display/setup YOU like. Most of the programs out
there (LK8000, XC Soar, SeeYouMobile, etc) are highly configurable and
can be set to display information in a variety of ways. It needs to
work for YOU (and no one else). It needs to let you show the
information you want in a way that you can quickly and easily
understand, so you can get your eyes back outside the cockpit where
they belong! In normal flight, the PDA should be a "sanity check" or
a backup to your gut/intuition.

The best way to get experience is to see if your fellow pilots can let
you fiddle with their PDA on the ground sometime. Spend time with
each one and try to experiment with as many different PDAs and
programs as you can - and see which works for you. Some of them (like
my favorite, LK8000) have a built-in "simulator" mode (or a "replay"
mode) that lets you take a pretend flight and see how the software
reacts in-flight.

Good luck, stay active, and feel free to post again if you have more
questions!

Take care,

--Noel
P.S. In case you're curious: SeeYouMobile is pricey, but has a ton
of features, is pretty easy to use, and comes with a lot of the "setup
work" done for you. Free software like LK8000 and XCSoar have pretty
much all of the same features as SeeYouMobile, but they require you to
do a little bit more of the setup work. Its not hard work, but its
the difference between clicking an "Install" button versus downloading
several individual files and copying them to the right directory on
your PC or PDA, and then selecting the proper items from configuration
menus inside the program.