Originally Posted by
n5296s
I got as far as soloing but just didn't see the fun or interest in continuing.
I was shocked at how expensive it is -- it cost more per hour of flying time than the Pitts (which is not a cheap plane to fly), because of the cost of tows. I was also surprised by how boring it is - get towed up, release, tool around for 10 minutes, point back at field, fly pattern, land. Could be summarised as "controlled falling".
I know the fun is supposed to be in finding lift and squeezing every vertical inch out of it, but in the half dozen times I did it, there was never a breath of lift to be found.
You seem to have had a rather unfortunate experience. By the time I went solo I had been soaring on ridge, and in thermal and wave - we had a wave flight to over FL100 one evening. My first flight was ridge-soaring, and I was allowed to do most of the flying. The longest pre-solo flight was about 1:40 - that was the wave flight.
We mostly do winch launching where I fly, so when there's no lift the up round & down takes 5 minutes or so, but if one needs to practise landings it's much cheaper than using aerotows.
If you go back when there is lift around you might have a completely different and much more rewarding experience.