VFR on top you say?
Well, so there I was on a cold, windy, grey and dreary day, almost OVC008, best suited to looking out a window of someplace heated with your favorite hot or cold beverage in hand. I was looking out a window all right, but no heater, no beverage, at 1000' AGL with half a six-pack (instruments that is, not the other kind) and no engine. I had a parachute on my back and a perfectly fine aircraft, so not all was lost, but this probably wasn't the best piece of ADM . . .
So, how did I get in and out of this? Well, let's go back in time 5 minutes:
There I was, 13 years old, spend the last year and a half hanging out at the local glider field, bumming rides, helping out where I could and eagerly awaiting spring to arrive so that I could finally start training. But right now it was still autumn, probably the last day of flying that year, so we did. I was strapped in the back of our ASK 13, a young FI up front and the whole thing hitched to the winch, ready to launch into the grey sky. Airborne after about 2 seconds of groundroll, VSI pegged at 1000fpm and suddenly it was as bright as day, blue sky above and white clouds below.The only hole in the overcast happend to be right above the winch at the right time. I had never seen anything like this and I spend a felt eternity taking in the view. I knew right then this whole flying thing was what I had to do.
"Time to get back down" I heard, the nose came down, airspeed build and a steep 360° turn later we were on downwind, then base, final, spoilers out touchdown and back on the ground in the grey.
A flight as memorable as my first solo about a year later and when I met my pilot of that day again after more than a decade of him flying shiny jets all across the globe, it still had a special place in his heart and logbook.
TL;DR: escaping gray autumn day for a minute in a glider gets 13yo hooked on flight.
Thanks for bringing up this memory!
P.S. The spellcheck wants to change six-pack into sexpot, what's up with that?