Gregg,
Well said. Soaring isn't easy, but neither is power flying. In both
we are fighting gravity.
I am fairly new to soaring, coming from a power background. Most
sailplane pilots I meet are fantastic people, supportive and easy
going. Really great bunch of people to be around. My only observation
is that there are very few women in the sport, much less so than
general aviation, airline or even military flying. If we want to get
the soaring numbers up we need to appeal to the other 50% of the
population(possible thread creep here...)
However, I always have to chuckle when I hear the rare one say
that"soaring is much tougher than flying a power plane". When I
politely inquire what power background they have usually they respond
NONE! :-)
To be honest, I was prepared to be shunned when I got into this
sport because of the supposed power/glider gulf. If anything, most
pilots love flying of any sort. I got hooked and bought a glider myself
and am just kicking myself for not soaring sooner.
Big egos are everywhere, but thankfully rare. Thanks for the great
post.
Dean Chantiles