> Just out of curiosity, are there people out there who fly just for the fun
> of it, don't feel compelled to engage in the hardware race, don't feel that
> competition is the only game in town when it comes to soaring?
I fly just for the fun of it. Until yesterday I competed exclusively in
hlg competition with my fleet of Lil Bird2's. I guess I entered the
space race yesterday with use of a dlg in a contest. I now have 3
Hypershnitzel 2001 DLG's.
It was with mixed emotions that I switched to the newer dlg style
planes. You have no idea the feeling of satisfaction one (me) gets when
flying with "old technology" in a contest only to find oneself (myself)
on occasion to be the highest bird in the sky with all those other
superduper ships buzzing around below, or beelining it over towards "my"
thermal. The neat thing is that when this happens you really stand out
because a lot of the new sailplanes sort of look the same. When your
old-fashioned plane is higher than everyone else's, people notice!
I guess the reason I am getting into the high-tech stuff is that I'm
going through my mid-life crisis. I am 46 years-old and my fleet of
dlg's costs WAY less than a red Lamborgini. (Actually I had my mid-life
crisis several years ago - I spray painted the wheels on my Toyota
Tercel bright yellow.)
This hobby is how I relax from the daily grind and relieve stress. The
way I look at it, I buy these sailplanes for medicinal purposes.
If anyone reading this is saying to themselves "It's too expensive to
compete anymore and that's why I'm not going to contests...", I am
telling you to go to a contest with reasonable expectations, a good
attitude and whatever you have to fly, and you WILL have fun! My ONLY
goals when I compete is to have fun and to avoid landing in a tree. I
have met BOTH of my goals at ALL of the contests I have entered thusfar
since entering this hobby a couple years ago.
Anyone who says that they can't be competitive with "old technology" has
never seen Ray Hayes fly his Lil Bird2. I have not abandoned "old
technology", I have just added "new technology" my collection of
sailplanes.
Cliff
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