Great pictures - thanks for sharing.
One time my sister got me a free flight weekend at the local soaring club as bitrthday present.
I had 5 free flights. 4 out of them were about 5-8 minutes only, but one was a long 20 minutes on wich the the teacher in the rear seat handed me over the controls.
It was very shaky and I don't know how big my smile was, but when the teacher told me to fly a 360° circle, I lost about 400 metres height. I think I didi it too much like in a dogfight, so my teacher grabbed the controls and went in for a short final and landed.
Was a big fun and two long days.
Sadly it's very time consuming and a little bit expensive to go with the club.
and I missed the roaring of an engine too.
Well but saturday I fixed my new bycicle and fitted it with backpacks.
Nice hobby, conman - stay with it if you can.