I remember very clearly the first time I actually flew. I got so excited I pushed out and stalled bending the down tube on landing.

The previous month (October 1984), I had been running down the side of a gravel pit doing "training hill" exercises, but it was mostly work, and no pivotal moments. It wasn't until I went to a 300 foot community bunny ski hill an hour's train ride north of Munich in November, and actually got the glider ten feet off the ground, that it hit me. That feeling can still be recalled.

It is absolutely clear to me that this had to be an individual experience. That it had to be me flying on my own. I had already flown tandem in a sailplane and while that was cool, it sure didn't make me want to go back for more.

No, there is a distinct qualitative difference between tandem and solo flying. It is so different that it makes all the difference.

Rationally, you would think that it wouldn't make that much difference, but we are talking about the human mind here, which only has a thin veneer of rationality. It is the much deeper and older portions of the brain that react to the experience.

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