What we are yakking about of course is flying, so we do have to practice it at every opportunity to have the adventures worth telling...
....
After a flight like that, you don't really mind helping out on the ground for a while.
My "winter refresher" a couple of weeks ago was a rather enjoyable 7 minute flight
- sitting on the ground, we saw a pair of buzzards fly over
- one minute later we were in the right place, but couldn't see them
- so we meandered slowly upwards in a thermal until a bird flew past us
- we simultaneously realised it wasn't a buzzard but was a red kite, the first I've seen
- we turned and followed it, slowly overtaking it about 15m away (we gazed into each other's eyes...)
- then a stall followed by a spin
- the instructor took control and only gave control back to me when we were not far off doing a chandelle
- and intimated I should "get out of that" and "get us back to the airfield"
I did help out at the launch point after that, but I felt as if I was 6" off the ground. Glorious.