Bad publicity

[David Starer]

I just searched on "glider" on the BBC's news web site. What I found shocked
me. Of 46 results returned for the period since May 1998, not a single one
mentioned any form of achievement whatsoever in gliding. See here for the
search page:

http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=news&start=1&q=gli
der&scope=newsukfs

Given that British pilots have been spectacularly successful in
international competition over the last few years, either our world-famous
national TV news service is deliberately ignoring us, or our governing body
is failing miserably in getting the message across.

We all know the press love a good disaster but when a few Brits kick a ball
into a net they all get gongs and the papers go wild for weeks. Why can't
gliding get so much as a mention, even when we produce a world champion? I
know ours is a minority sport but the British media are not usually shy
about trumpeting British successes.

For the (dismal) record, here are 33 of the 46 headlines on the BBC site; I
think they speak for themselves. (The rest are mostly about Steve Fosset's
preparations for record flights or other non-fatal glider incidents
reflecting in various negative ways on gliding):

Glider death crash boy named
Teenager dies in glider crash
Glider death would be 'perfect'
Crashed glider 'caught on cable'
Glider pilots in mid-air collision
Fatal glider crash witness appeal
Glider pilot dies after crash
Glider crash inquiry opens
Glider crashes into mountain
Dead glider pilot named
Pilot powerless to stop mid-air collision
Inquest into air collision
Glider pilot dies in crash
Crash pilot faces law suit
Glider crashes on main rail route
'Experienced' glider in crash
Glider crash pilot named
Glider crash inquiry starts
Inquest into glider deaths
Glider death pilot named
Glider crash victim 'loved flying'
Glider crash victims named
Two die in glider crash
'Freak' air crash inquiry continues
Elderly man survives glider crash
Two dead in glider and plane crash
Two dead after glider accidents
One dead after mid-air collision
Three killed in air crashes
Three dead in glider crash
Pilot unaware of rambler death
Leading glider pilot dies in collision
Two killed in gliding accident

[Martin Gregorie]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
> wrote:

....snippage....

>Given that British pilots have been spectacularly successful in
>international competition over the last few years, either our world-famous
>national TV news service is deliberately ignoring us, or our governing body
>is failing miserably in getting the message across.
>
>We all know the press love a good disaster but when a few Brits kick a ball
>into a net they all get gongs and the papers go wild for weeks. Why can't
>gliding get so much as a mention, even when we produce a world champion? I
>know ours is a minority sport but the British media are not usually shy
>about trumpeting British successes.
>
The BBC is actually extremely parochial and very selective in its
sports coverage and I wish I knew why.

Parochial: Listen to Olympic coverage: a number of times I've heard
reportage about some Brit winning a bronze but not a hint of who
actually won the event.

Selective: IMO the Beeb's soccer coverage has been excessive for 30
years (yes, even before it became fashionable for yuppies it got too
disproportionate attention). Apart from that, horse racing, cricket
and tennis everything else is minor league. Unless its golf,
field&track or rugby it tends only to be mentioned if a disaster
happens. Any connection between horse racing and sport totally eludes
me: its pure gambling and not sport.

My current theory is that the Beeb really only reports financial news
and events that might affect the financial world. When you come to
sport the only really big money is in soccer, tennis and horse racing,
so that's what mostly gets covered.


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

[Alistair Wright]

"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
> > wrote:

Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy
actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
certainly no fire.

Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you
cannot package it for TV. There have been a few ,very few, programmes about
gliding over the 7 decades since the sport started but I wouldn't like to
guess when the next one might be.

Alistair Wright

[Martin Gregorie]

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:02:32 -0000, "Alistair Wright"
> wrote:

>
>"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
...
>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
>> > wrote:
>
>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
>is!
>
Too true!

>In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
>'air-minded public I used to think.
>
Its worse than that. I was in a field When the only spontaneous
response to a glider sitting in a field by the road is a yell of
'******' from a passing school bus you realise just how strong the
anti-avialtion culture in the UK is. But then we already know that.

> On two occasions some local worthy
>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
>certainly no fire.
>
On one occasion (I was part of the retrieve crew) there were eight
police cars, two fire trucks and a rescue helicopter. A local rang
them. At least the rescue services blamed said local, not us. When we
arrived the villagers were muttering about blocked roads and how they
could never get a cop when they wanted one.

>Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you
>cannot package it for TV.
>
Yeah, I know, but you'd think a short interview would be on when yet
another soaring (or model flying) gold medal arrives in the UK. Maybe
this happens too often for it to be classed as news?


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

[Mike Lindsay]

In article >, Alistair Wright
> writes
>
>"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
...
>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
>> > wrote:
>
>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
>is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
>'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy
>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
>certainly no fire.

I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near Bury St Edmunds.
I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines and a doctor.
I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've never seen one
disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously heavy.

The next day I landed out again, my second phone call was a 999 to tell
the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit non-plussed, but
quite glad to know.

--
Mike Lindsay

[c1rrus]

Hi Martin

Lack of publicity for soaring is a worldwide problem. Here in South
Africa we don't exactly have a surfeit of world champions. However, when
Oscar Goudrian won the worlds Open class in the first WGC to be held in
Africa (Let alone in South Africa) it did not even qualify for a clip on
national television.
Some second rate football match that involved lots of noise and stone
throwing was far better news. Pity but that appears to be the way of it.

At least they appear to be even handed about this and ignore the
occasional crash too. So - no negative or positive publicity here.

Cheers
Bruce
Gregorie wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:02:32 -0000, "Alistair Wright"
> > wrote:
>
>
>>"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
...
>>
>>>On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
> wrote:
>>
>>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
>>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
>>is!
>>
>
> Too true!
>
>
>>In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
>>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
>>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
>>'air-minded public I used to think.
>>
>
> Its worse than that. I was in a field When the only spontaneous
> response to a glider sitting in a field by the road is a yell of
> '******' from a passing school bus you realise just how strong the
> anti-avialtion culture in the UK is. But then we already know that.
>
>
>>On two occasions some local worthy
>>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
>>certainly no fire.
>>
>
> On one occasion (I was part of the retrieve crew) there were eight
> police cars, two fire trucks and a rescue helicopter. A local rang
> them. At least the rescue services blamed said local, not us. When we
> arrived the villagers were muttering about blocked roads and how they
> could never get a cop when they wanted one.
>
>
>>Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you
>>cannot package it for TV.
>>
>
> Yeah, I know, but you'd think a short interview would be on when yet
> another soaring (or model flying) gold medal arrives in the UK. Maybe
> this happens too often for it to be classed as news?
>
>
> --
> martin@ : Martin Gregorie
> gregorie : Harlow, UK
> demon :
> co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
> uk :
>

[Owain Walters]

I have seen the emergency services twice at a field
that I have landed in. Both times we called them.

Maybe it says something about your landings more than
an uneducated public! ;-)

At 08:24 22 January 2004, Mike Lindsay wrote:
>In article , Alistair Wright
> writes
>>
>>'Martin Gregorie' wrote in message
...
>>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, 'David Starer'
>>> wrote:
>>
>>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you
>>land out in the UK there
>>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking
>>where the 'crash'
>>is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered
>>this response.
>>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen
>>off, they still often
>>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one.
>> So much for our
>>'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions
>>some local worthy
>>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused
>>to find no crash and
>>certainly no fire.
>
>I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near
>Bury St Edmunds.
>I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines
>and a doctor.
>I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've
>never seen one
>disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously
>heavy.
>
>The next day I landed out again, my second phone call
>was a 999 to tell
>the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit
>non-plussed, but
>quite glad to know.
>
>--
>Mike Lindsay
>

[Stephen Cook]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Starer" >
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.soaring
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 7:01 PM
Subject: Bad publicity


> I just searched on "glider" on the BBC's news web site. What I found
shocked
> me. Of 46 results returned for the period since May 1998, not a single one
> mentioned any form of achievement whatsoever in gliding. See here for the
> search page:
>
>
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=news&start=1&q=gli
> der&scope=newsukfs
>

Your search didn't reaveal this one
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1431834.stm about some 90 year olds having a
few trial lessons, but it's still not the sort of publicity we want.

When we were doing very well in the Junior world championships I emailed the
BBC online sports people to draw their attention to it. This was on a day
when they were covering the European Blind Football Championships,
wheelchair tennis, World Netball Championships.and US baseball*. Now, I
have no problem with them covering these minority sports, but you would have
thought that they could make room for gliding amongst them. Predicably
there was no response - not even a reply to my email. The BGA at this time
were also producing a deluge of press releases so they really should have
been aware of the British sucesses.

A friend of mine once complained to the Times newspaper that they didn't
cover gliding and their response was that they didn't have anyone to cover
it. She said "yes you do" and became the voluntary Times gliding
correspondent. They used some of the stuff she produced but eventually got
bored with it. Perhaps someone needs to volunteer their services to the
BBC.

*I know baseball isn't a minority sport for many reading this, but I'm
talking about the UK here.

Stephen

[Martin Gregorie]

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:54:34 +0000, Mike Lindsay
> wrote:

>In article >, Alistair Wright
> writes
>>
>>"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
...
>>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
>>> > wrote:
>>
>>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
>>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
>>is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
>>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
>>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
>>'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy
>>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
>>certainly no fire.
>
>I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near Bury St Edmunds.
>I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines and a doctor.
>I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've never seen one
>disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously heavy.
>
>The next day I landed out again, my second phone call was a 999 to tell
>the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit non-plussed, but
>quite glad to know.

That's a good idea. I'll remember to do that in future.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

[Bill Gribble]

Stephen Cook ]> writes
>A friend of mine once complained to the Times newspaper that they
>didn't cover gliding and their response was that they didn't have
>anyone to cover it. She said "yes you do" and became the voluntary
>Times gliding correspondent. They used some of the stuff she produced
>but eventually got bored with it. Perhaps someone needs to volunteer
>their services to the BBC.

That's usually the way with the media (admittedly, I'm drawing more from
my experience with music and theatre than gliding, but there might be an
analogy here). If you point them at a story or item of interest and hope
they'll cover it, odds are they'll ignore you. If, on the other hand,
you cut out their need to do any real work themselves and provide them
the story written up and ready to print, the hit-rate (and thus
exposure) climbs considerably.

Perhaps all clubs should have a "volunteer" in the form of a budding
freelance journalist for feeding the press and public relations monster?

And whilst 90 year old grannies taking to the sky might not be the sort
of cut and dash image we'd really want to portray, any publicity is good
publicity, and it was nice seeing a picutre of one of the club's K8s on
the BBC website :P

--
Bill Gribble

/----------------------------------\
| http://www.cotswoldgliding.co.uk |
| http://members.aol.com/annsweb |
| http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org |
\----------------------------------/

[Chris OCallaghan]

No one reports because no one cares, save when one of us dies in the
act, proving once again there's nothing "safe as houses."

There are so many diversions available... who is the world snowmobile
champion? Scrabble? Water skiing? Rock climbing? Surfing? Curling?
Squash? Mountain biking? And a hundred other other equally challenging
passtimes with more participants, greater accessibility, and lower
barriers to entry.

We have an unrealistic view of our sport because we have so much
invested in its returns. We find the formula agreeable. Most people do
not. Enjoy the sport for the personal satisfaction you find in it.
Answer the questions of the curious with honest enthusiasm. Welcome
and support those who have recognized the commitment required and have
chosen to pursue the sport anyway (this is where we lose the majority
of potential soaring pilots). And accept it is a passtime to be shared
among a lucky few.

And if you think it is important to be featured on the news in a
positive light, all it takes is money to feed a PR machine. I'm sure
Steve Fosset can recommend a capable firm. Make sure you have 7
figures available. Free advertising is expensive.

Cheers,

OC

[Bill Gribble]

Chris OCallaghan > writes
>We have an unrealistic view of our sport because we have so much
>invested in its returns. We find the formula agreeable. Most people do
>not.

Perhaps. Or is it that from the outside our small community seems so
exclusive and inaccessible to somebody with no prior aviation background
or connections?

As a complete outsider that had finally decided to take the plunge, just
walking onto an airfield involved a considerable degree of uncertainty
and required a tremendous amount of resolve to follow through. It's an
utterly alien environment to somebody whose only other aviation exposure
has been as an occasional punter on a commercial airliner.

Had my wife not been fool enough to have brought a trial lesson voucher
as a Christmas present, odds are I'd have never have done it for myself.
If nothing else, what I *perceived* as being the costs involved with
gliding were utterly prohibitive in my mind. But completely out of scale
with what I've actually found now that I've done it. I should have done
this 15 years ago. I wanted to, and now find that I could have done,
easily... Not that I'm bitter, mind you. I'm more than enjoying myself
making up for lost time.

So I'd argue that the publicity issues we have with our "sport" are
rooted in the *apparent* inaccessibility of what we do. It's very easy
to take for granted something you do every weekend. The thought that I
could wake up on a Saturday morning and by lunchtime find myself
wire-launched to 1700' was staggering to me when I first joined my club.
It is still.

And friends and family go one of two ways when I incessantly rail on
about my day at the airfield. Some of them switch off. Glaze-eyed
incomprehension. It just doesn't catch them. But some don't. They're
utterly fascinated. And intrigued that there is so much to it, and that
it is so, well, possible.

>And if you think it is important to be featured on the news in a
>positive light, all it takes is money to feed a PR machine. I'm sure
>Steve Fosset can recommend a capable firm. Make sure you have 7 figures
>available. Free advertising is expensive.

Absolutely. And certainly on a national scale.

On the other hand, awareness begins locally. And for something like
gliding, I'd be tempted to argue that the biggest payback is from local
and regional publicity, because that's where your new members come from.
And most local rags will happily print something of local interest if
its given to them as a done deal. But how many times has your club been
mentioned in the local paper in the last year?

Having said that, the above isn't necessarily intended as criticism,
merely observation. My point of view is as somebody very new to this
whole thing, it only being a little over six months since I first set
foot in a glider, and less than four since I seriously started to fly.

So my view is very, very ab inito and thus quite possibly ill-informed.

It also strikes me that the odds are that this matter has already been
discussed countless times, and were the matter as simple to address as I
might appear to be suggesting, it would, as an issue, have already been
done and dusted :)

But then apathy in such things rules supreme. Which is something
certainly not peculiar to the gliding world.


-Bill

[Tony Verhulst]

> Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
> will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
> is!

A member of a club about 100 miles north of me (Northeast U.S.)had a
"firm" off field landing - no damage. He had a bad back and after he got
out of the glider he laid down on the ground to stretch it out a little.
The next thing he knew, there was a fireman on top of him, pounding on
his chest trying to "restart" his heart. While protesting vigorously,
the police arrived and decided that the fireman needed help. The pilot
found the incident a bit amusing..... some months after the event.

Tony V.

[Martin Gregorie]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 13:53:36 +0000, Bill Gribble
> wrote:

>As a complete outsider that had finally decided to take the plunge, just
>walking onto an airfield involved a considerable degree of uncertainty
>and required a tremendous amount of resolve to follow through. It's an
>utterly alien environment to somebody whose only other aviation exposure
>has been as an occasional punter on a commercial airliner.
>
That's interesting, and a point I hadn't considered. I think it never
occurred to me because I've been walking onto airfields for years to
fly Free Flight models.

>Had my wife not been fool enough to have brought a trial lesson voucher
>as a Christmas present, odds are I'd have never have done it for myself.
>If nothing else, what I *perceived* as being the costs involved with
>gliding were utterly prohibitive in my mind.
>
I think the costs are commonly overestimated by outsiders. By that I
include both the capital costs and the (very odd) cost structure of
running a glider based at a wire launch site.

However, this is a decidedly UK-centric view because here the costs of
gliding are a *lot* less than power flying, under £30 an hour to rent
a club glider vs. the £90+ I've been told that power flying costs and,
of course with free instruction within a club. By contrast,
discussions I've had in America seem to show that the usual way of
learning, at an FBO, can amount to 80% of the cost of learning power
flying.

Comments, anybody?

>On the other hand, awareness begins locally. And for something like
>gliding, I'd be tempted to argue that the biggest payback is from local
>and regional publicity, because that's where your new members come from.
>And most local rags will happily print something of local interest if
>its given to them as a done deal. But how many times has your club been
>mentioned in the local paper in the last year?
>
We've certainly found that to be the case. Local papers are happy to
run stories and so, interestingly, are the local TV stations.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

[Chris OCallaghan]

Bill,

We're on the same wavelength.

Think locally... act locally. Next time you see a someone unfamiliar
standing alone surveying the grid, introduce yourself. Answer his
questions. Promise him a ride that same evening. You'll do more for
the sport than any local or national media outlet.

More pilots try and drop the sport than stick with it. I'd guess,
anecdotally, it's 3 to 1. If we could retain 10 percent of those who
left, we'd increase our numbers by almost 1/3. It would take tens of
millions of dollars to get the same results from a marketing campaign.
We are already attracting interest. Trick is to keep more pilots
engaged for longer.

I don't particularly care if the sport grows or not. But it's impolite
not to talk to someone who shows interest. So by default, I guess I'm
pro growth.

[Mark James Boyd]

Bill Gribble > wrote:

>Had my wife not been fool enough to have brought a trial lesson voucher
>as a Christmas present, odds are I'd have never have done it for myself.
>If nothing else, what I *perceived* as being the costs involved with
>gliding were utterly prohibitive in my mind. But completely out of scale
>with what I've actually found now that I've done it.
>-Bill

I find that when people inquire about being a pilot and the cost,
instructors and other pilots invariably start talking about a license
and how much it costs (these are the same people who always talk
about the 100th time they almost died flying to newbies).
The staggering sums of $3000 to $8000 are mentioned (glider or power).
If somebody had told ME that, I'd have never taken up flying at all...

Instead I tell them "most people I teach will be flying alone, in an
aircraft, for about a $1000 to $2000, in about ten to twenty lessons."
If you have two weeks straight and come to the airport almost every
day, that'll usually do it, or you can stretch it out, and fly 2-3 days
a week for a coupla months...

I get a lot more students this way...

[David Smith]

The important publicity is in gliding clubs own hands,
local coverage is fairly easy to come by, have an open
day, a charity event, an air show or just a feature
on club achievements. This will get plenty of interested
potential members to try gliding, assuming you have
a reasonable population nearby it really is that easy.
So why are numbers falling, because many clubs are
so badly organised, new recruits and ab-initios are
EXPECTED to hang around all day and maybe get a 5 min
circuit at 4pm.
In the past people had the time to do that, but today
most do not, they value their time and want to feel
that it is worthwhile. Pressure from work , family,
partners and other sports terminates a great many flying
careers, clubs must recognise this ( assuming they
really want more members and by no means all do!! ).
Notably, a few clubs have recognised this and are thriving,
most have yet to change.
Gliding need not be expensive, it will cost about £
700 in flyingtime plus membership say £200 thats £900
for your first year and you should be solo by then,
after that it's up to you. There are plenty of sports
more expensive, boats, horses, motorcycles, golf and
many others.
Having my own glider I spend £2000 each year which
is just about what it would cost to keep a horse, it
is a comparison that I use to put the cost in perspective
to outsiders. Everyone knows someone who has a horse
even if they cannot afford one themselves. The majority
of horse owners that I know are women, so they really
do have time and money to follow their sport and are
not tied to the sink exclusively. Regretably though
most of them choose other ways to spend their spare
cash.


David Smith

[Alistair Wright]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Smith" >
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.soaring
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 7:37 PM
Subject: Re: Bad Publicity

snipped

> So why are numbers falling, because many clubs are
> so badly organised, new recruits and ab-initios are
> EXPECTED to hang around all day and maybe get a 5 min
> circuit at 4pm.

This is because launching facilities are usually pretty limited at most
Clubs.
Even when I instructed at the London Club which was staffed by professionals
(as
well as us amateurs) the launch rate was pretty pathetic.

Some of this problem was down to inadequate provision of winches and tugs
but a
lot of it was just inefficiency and cost cutting (using cheap winch cable
which
broke a lot). Even aerotowing was not best quality due to underpowered tugs
and
an unwillingness to teach and use multiple towing.

Pressure from work , family,
> partners and other sports terminates a great many flying
> careers, clubs must recognise this ( assuming they
> really want more members and by no means all do!! ).

It eventually terminated mine! I was finding time in air /time on ground a
very
poor ratio and I was an instructor! I had other hobbies which provided a
better
ratio of enjoyment to ennui, and I gave up gliding with about 700hrs and a
Silver C. I could see no chance of Gold without buying into a syndicate, as
club aircraft were just not available for me to attempt the necessary tasks.
While I enjoyed instructing (most of the time when I had pupils who were not
trying to kill me) it wasn't enough to keep my enthusiasm going. No one at
the
club seemed bothered about my departure either.

> Having my own glider I spend £2000 each year which
> is just about what it would cost to keep a horse, it
> is a comparison that I use to put the cost in perspective
> to outsiders.

Yes, but you overlook the investment in time that you put in to get to the
stage
where you were allowed to fly a high performance machine. I bet that cost a
bob
or two, and a lot of potential pilots just can't see that day coming and
give
up.

Alistair Wright
long retired glider pilot

[Bernd W. Hennig]

G'Day,

the same in Germany - no news in TV or Radio or newspapers
about any champions or championships. But our police is more
lazy than yours outside Germany - I had never a police-visit during
my after-the-outlanding-wait-for-the-crew. But a lot of gawpers, too -
they ask everytime "have you lost wind" (I hope the translation fits...)

I try to inform them about soaring, allow children to sit in the cockpit
etc. - everytime I left I had a lot of new "friends" (and no angry
farmers).

Cu


c1rrus > wrote:

> Hi Martin
>
> Lack of publicity for soaring is a worldwide problem. Here in South
> Africa we don't exactly have a surfeit of world champions. However, when
> Oscar Goudrian won the worlds Open class in the first WGC to be held in
> Africa (Let alone in South Africa) it did not even qualify for a clip on
> national television.
> Some second rate football match that involved lots of noise and stone
> throwing was far better news. Pity but that appears to be the way of it.
>
> At least they appear to be even handed about this and ignore the
> occasional crash too. So - no negative or positive publicity here.
>
> Cheers
> Bruce
> Gregorie wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:02:32 -0000, "Alistair Wright"
> > > wrote:
> >
> >
> >>"Martin Gregorie" > wrote in message
> ...
> >>
> >>>On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
> > wrote:
> >>
> >>Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there
> >>will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash'
> >>is!
> >>
> >
> > Too true!
> >
> >
> >>In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response.
> >>Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often
> >>could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our
> >>'air-minded public I used to think.
> >>
> >
> > Its worse than that. I was in a field When the only spontaneous
> > response to a glider sitting in a field by the road is a yell of
> > '******' from a passing school bus you realise just how strong the
> > anti-avialtion culture in the UK is. But then we already know that.
> >
> >
> >>On two occasions some local worthy
> >>actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and
> >>certainly no fire.
> >>
> >
> > On one occasion (I was part of the retrieve crew) there were eight
> > police cars, two fire trucks and a rescue helicopter. A local rang
> > them. At least the rescue services blamed said local, not us. When we
> > arrived the villagers were muttering about blocked roads and how they
> > could never get a cop when they wanted one.
> >
> >
> >>Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you
> >>cannot package it for TV.
> >>
> >
> > Yeah, I know, but you'd think a short interview would be on when yet
> > another soaring (or model flying) gold medal arrives in the UK. Maybe
> > this happens too often for it to be classed as news?
> >
> >
> > --
> > martin@ : Martin Gregorie
> > gregorie : Harlow, UK
> > demon :
> > co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
> > uk :
> >