On Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 2:40:32 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Maybe this is a good opportunity for some of us to share some stories of our experiences.
I'll go first.-

During the regional at Harris Hill in 2013 I was flying K21 with grandson Calvin Mampe, Rachel Conklin, and her sister Michelle. All 3 had flown multiple contests with me before, 2 having done so before they were old enough to solo.
Half way through the contest, my wife Dianne had a terrible fall and ended up hospitalized with some very serious injuries. All 3 of the juniors had good flights with me earlier in the contest so I told them to just keep on flying.
On Friday, Calvin and Rachel flew but decided to abandon the task part way around the course due to rain. They did not want to land out and take the ship apart in the rain. Smart!
The next day Rachel and Michelle flew together. About 4:00 I was in the ICU with Dianne when Calvin called. When I answered, he simply said “K21 four miles”. Our 2 young ladies had flown the course for a reasonable score. To my knowledge, this is the first time two young sisters had ever flown in competition. We had a seriously great group hug that night. This may be my best ever moment as a supporter of youth soaring.
Following up- Michelle is now an A&P working for Textron and just finished her first restoration, a 1-26E. Rachel is instructing at Flight Safety and soon will have all the requirements for her ATP.

UH

Well I will go back to the mid 70's when I was flying with the renegades from Miami, it was such a fine group of guys. We were sitting around the table at the side door when war stories began to come from some of the older gentlemen. First it was Lou Salvatore, who told stories of being a waist gunner on a B17 and flying deep into Germany on many harrowing missions. Then it was another guy named Bennie Flowers, who was one of the if not the best glider pilot that I ever knew. Bennie told his story about training glider tow pilots in a C 47 with the AAC. Paul, "Pablo Crowell", told of being a very young B 29 commander and flying into Japan to drop bombs, Pablo said that the briefer's never told the truth about the Japanese not having any fuel, they were shooting the hell out of us as we dropped from 5 thousand feet.
Then the spokesman became Paul Lowman, a very soft spoken guy who had an LS-3. One of the guys asked Paul did you fly in the military, the reply was yes. Paul told the group that he did not fly in the AAC, he flew for the RAF, he then replied that he flew Spitfires in the Battle Of Britain. They was not much said after that! What a great group of guys to have been a part of my early glider days. E9, Bennie, Pablo, Fritz, Walter, and many more, Thanks, Bob