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Old September 15th 10, 03:05 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
John Smith
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Posts: 195
Default Future Club Training Gliders

Grider Pirate wrote:
I wanted to fly since I was about 4 years old.
When I was 47, I finally got the chance, and almost all my lessons
were in a 2-33. Frankly I don't think it would have mattered to me
WHAT the club had to fly. I just wanted to be in the air.


George Moffat in "Winning on the Wind":

As a boy, I discovered a copy of Terence Horselay's "Soaring Flight" in
the local library. I must have pretty much worn out their copy, mooning
over pictures of the then fabulous Minimoa, reading accounts by the
great Philip Wills, becoming utterly entranced with the idea of silent
flight.

....

[First training flights in the USA]
After only a few flights in the stodgy two-place trainer, I became
bored. The handling was poor, the performance terrible. There seemed no
connection to the early dream.

....

That summer, while living in Paris [his first solo in an Emouchet, the
French version of the Grunau Baby] ...

Once aloft, the air rushing over my face, the wings seeming extensions
of my arms from the narrow cockpit, I knew that this was the experience
I had dreamed about. ...

That day, late in the evening, Camille Labar, member of the French
National Team, skimmed over the field in the Breguet after completing a
440 km triangle. There were, it seemed, a few things to be learned.



Bottom line: The training glider does matter. And it also does matter
that there are some cross country pilots around.