Tales of being distracted by scenery and/or euphoria while soaring

Oh, so -that's- what you were doing...
I think you beat me anyway.

1FL



Found myself backtracking at Cordele once because I got engrossed in looking at something on the ground. I wasted several minutes, lost altitude, and was going the wrong way when I remembered I was supposed to be racing.



Watching birds in thermals gets me sometimes. I'll get distracted watching them and end up wallowing around 99.9% stalled.



I could never race at Parowan. How could anyone go fast when the turnpoints are the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and all that other stuff out there? I'd be zipping along under a street at 11k' and next thing you know, I'd find myself landing out near Zion Park.

Remember Gleb in The Sun Ship Game comparing himself to George Moffat? "I don't know if I could concentrate to that extent anyways, I'd probably get distracted looking at a beautiful cloud or something."

I remember one time I released at 1000agl. on the low hill right next to the runway (the mountains there rise to over 5000asl. within a kilometer of the 128asl. runway and the low bump of a hill sticks out from the main range at a good angle to the prevailing wind allowing us to release at 1000, climb to 1600-2000 and then head west or north to other mountains which allow a higher climb) during my first turn I saw a bald eagle above me. I watched him, entranced as I made my reversing turn which ended with me being aimed towards the mountain to the west. The eagle swept his wings back and made a dash for that mountain. I thought "cool!", put the stick forward and followed him. I was three quarters of the way to the mountain, still watching him when it occurred to me to look at the altimeter. 1200 feet... 20 knot tailwind... Fortunately for me when the eagle got to the ridge he pulled up into strong ridge lift and a few seconds later so did I. Later I worked out that with the wind, vertical air motion I experienced on the way to the mountain and the performance of my glider that if there hadn't been lift on the ridge I would probably have had just enough height to get back with a straight in approach. Just enough. And if you can't get back your best landing options are either the Fraser River or a sandbar on same.

There used to be a fun contest in Tehachapi called "The Blue Feather Fly-In".
Points were given for distance, speed, and 100 bonus points each for:
....Photo of someone on a horse.
....Photo of a waterfall.
....Photo of a car higher than you (easier than the other two in Southern California).
....Or for being accused of having fun.
One day Walt Rogers was giving his winner's speech, said something like "I turned the switchbacks, Jim said he was going to Mount Whitney, but I knew he wasn't going to just turn Whitney"
At which point he was told to sit down, as the 100 points I just got gave me the day win!
Jim