Quote from I don't know where: 'Gliding is to power flying as seduction is to rape'
A 747 pilot joined our club recently, and he loves it.
Its a totally different activity to power flying.
Get a thermal just as you were about to start your landing circuit, take it up to cloudbase, head along a cloud street, meet some other gliders and join their thermal, look out like you've never done before, they're above you, below you, on the other side of the thermal from you. maybe this one's too crowded so go and look for another.
A buzzard joins you in this one and you can see his tip feathers working every molecule of lift. You've got bigger wings though and after a few revolutions you outclimb him.
Another go in the cloudstreet, this time just dive in sink and slow down and climb in lift. Home airfield calls to say they've got heli movements for the next 3/4 hour, so come down now, stay up or land out. ' Sod it', you think, 'I'm at 4500ft, I'll tell them I'm staying up'.
.
Suddenly the sky is full of gliders, it must be a task returning to the neighbouring gliding site. At least there's no difficulty seeing where the lift is now. In no time, the home airfield is open again, so its time to head back to give someone else a go. Loads of height to burn off, so nose down and start covering ground at a speed to make a good few spamcan drivers green with envy.
Back on the ground, and the first person to arrive says, 'Can you go and drive the winch, '**** has been on it for ages and its his go in this one.' Ah, well, payback time...
Just flying around in circles? Yes, I guess it is, mostly!