There is a fine tradition in the Western Hemisphere of basic flying for fun, which includes hanging around the clubhouse exchanging war stories.
Can't resist sharing a simple summary of my flying this day, not far from Oxford (the original Oxford, in England). Arrived at the gliding club (oh no,here she goes again) and helped drag out the toys. As I need to fly these days with a safety pilot, snaffled an old buddy and he sat in the back seat while I flew it up the wire, and at 1,300 did a half turn spin just for the hell of it, and a circuit (final turn only slightly lower than it should have been).And then until 3.30 made myself useful by retrieving gliders back to the launchpoint, etc.
At last a K-13 became available - it was a very busy day. The T-21 open cockpit glider had launched just before us, it was gaining height impressively.
We connected with a reasonable thermal over the town, which just kept getting stronger and stronger, broke off the climb 200' below cloud base to maintain a good lookout for the 25 or 30 gliders having a ball local soaring.
Five to six knot thermals under every likely cloud, and some useful streets.
Began to feel guilty after 40 minutes of joy, realising somebody else might like a turn before the day went flat, so we had to throw it all away with a few spins down from 4,000'. Winch launch cost £6, glider cost 30 pence a minute. Work it out.
My only problem is that I havn't found a sensible gliding website to visit.
Glider pilot net isn't really sensible. Perhaps the PPRuNe people would consider setting up a forum just for us? There are a few who post on private flying from time to time, but it seems to emphasise power.
I do both, actually, but perhaps you can guess what I like best of all.....