ORIGINAL: Tired Old Man

Man, how I do miss slope soaring.

There's a purity to it that cannot be found in any other aspect of the hobby, except perhaps thermal soaring without benefit of an electric motor for back up. Both were my start in the RC side of the hobby, and both provided skills not found when learning to fly with an optional source of propulsion. People that fly purely silent aircraft make for much better power flyers because they have a better comprehension of the dynamics involved with flight. Powered flight is easy by comparison. Runway? Who needs a runway?

Back to engine failures though, most occur because people have a tendency to over complicate things and developed some need to attempt making "improvements" or "fix" things that already work. Once they accept some things for what they "are" instead of altering in an attempt to expand to what they "might be" the success factor goes up exponentially.