Affect of Alcohol (Beer) on Soaring and Soaring Racing

Even when I drank (more than 30 years ago when I got into a big health thing), I hesitated to do so the night before flying and I'm not sure I ever did before or during a contest. Did it make a difference? No idea. It was one less thing to worry about.

I do know that Car & Driver magazine once did a test where they ran several of their experienced drivers through a slalom course repeatedly, timing each run, administering another drink, timing the next run, etc. Fairly closely controlled to allow the alcohol to get into their systems. IIRC, fastest times were generally after 1-2 drinks. Drivers were slightly slower when sober and their performance deteriorated rapidly after a few drinks, to the point where they started knocking over a lot of cones. The hypothesis was that these amateur (though race-experienced) drivers were a little less inhibited with a small amount of alcohol, but that more of it cost them judgment, response time, etc.

Not the same thing as for what we do, obviously.

Chip Bearden