My soaring group teaches me about team spirit and a wonderful sport.

My soaring group teaches me about team spirit and a wonderful sport.

It’s great to know that I am part of a team – I’m mean all people who pursue this sport called soaring. These kind of free-time activities teach you how to work as a part of a team and learn to work with people who were at first strangers. Soaring helps me make a lot of humorous, reliable friends. What is even more important, I found my partner at the airport! This is all I can wish for…

Recently, during some rainy days, I was thinking about the more memorable times. These thoughts gave proof of this team spirit, so I thought it might be worth while to collect them:

• one of my friends from the aero club suggested to me that I write a blog because he thinks it’s special and interesting if a woman pilot writes about her experience. So, I should say thanks to this friend that helped me to make a lot of foreign friends and to ekkp in touch with some great pilots because to his excellent suggestion.
• after I had my first solo I started to learn how to fly in thermals. On a cloudy, rainy day it was a huge success that I could fly 10 mins (remember, I was a beginner) and the boys congratulated on me on the spot. From that time, I also give full marks to the person who deserves it. It’s great to feel that you are talented and the community accepts you.
• the soaring camp in summer: When we finished the flying day, we had a quick meal and then we played table tennis until midnight. It’s surprising if I look back because I usually feel super-tired after flying days. Instead of staying in bed we were keen on playing ping-pong.
• there are also the landouts.  This is when someone had a cross-country flight and could not get back to the airport–we had to go and help retrieve him. This was the funniest thing I’ve ever experienced! During the travel we spoke about the club life and after we put the glider on a truck trailer we bought cold beverages, pizza and melon. It was like a party!  Sometimes, when it was too hot to fly and the forecast did not say good weather conditions we went to the beach.
• we could also organise flying days at the weekdays so it can prove our team spirit again. It was not easy to call enough people to fly, but we were successful. The main organisers had a cross-country flight and we could practise. No surprise that everybody was content at the end of the day.
• the boys always make videos about great flying days, programmes and events at the airport. For example, in winter, it helps me to recall the our good times.

I am usually very excited about the aeroclub – but we also have problems. Naturally, that there are conflicts … it’s impossible to have a good relationship with everyone all the time. Yes, I am disappointed when I can’t fly because there’s no airplane available or I get sad when someone gets angry because of something unimportant. Sometimes people frustrate me, but I still say that it’s all worth the trouble.

Here is what I have learned, if you decide to become a pilot you have to make sacrifices. You will feel blue when you are not succesful with your training but the team will make it up to you. Nowadays, it’s typical to see youngsters who surf on the internet all day long – at least glider pilots spend there weekends taking in the fresh air and meeting others at the airport. We struggle towards the same goal–to become better and better in the art of soaring.