SSA at Sun-N-Fun - Need New Clubs

[Stuart Grant]

Volunteered to work the SSA booth at Sun-N-Fun along with members of
other Florida Soaring Clubs and folks from Seminole Lake Gliderport.
Talked to lots of power pilots and glider pilots from all over the US,
Canada and at least a dozen from Europe.

Common complaint was "Nowhere close to fly." I would ask where they
were from and tell them about the SSA website and the "Where to Fly"
section. Knowing soaring sites in Florida pretty well it became clear
that there are some areas in Florida (and Georgia and Alabama....) that
have a bunch of glider pilots living in close proximity that might be
able to form a club if they knew about each other.

How about a section on the SSA website "Want to Fly?" where current or
prospective pilots could leave contact info. If there are 8 or 10
pilots living within 30 miles of the same airport they might be able to
get together and buy a Blanik or a 2-33 and convince somebody to put a
tow hitch on a Cessna or a Supercub.

[[email protected]]

Stuart Grant wrote:
> Volunteered to work the SSA booth at Sun-N-Fun along with members of
> other Florida Soaring Clubs and folks from Seminole Lake Gliderport.
> Talked to lots of power pilots and glider pilots from all over the
US,
> Canada and at least a dozen from Europe.
>
> Common complaint was "Nowhere close to fly." I would ask where they
> were from and tell them about the SSA website and the "Where to Fly"
> section. Knowing soaring sites in Florida pretty well it became clear
> that there are some areas in Florida (and Georgia and Alabama....)
that
> have a bunch of glider pilots living in close proximity that might be
> able to form a club if they knew about each other.
>
> How about a section on the SSA website "Want to Fly?" where current
or
> prospective pilots could leave contact info. If there are 8 or 10
> pilots living within 30 miles of the same airport they might be able
to
> get together and buy a Blanik or a 2-33 and convince somebody to put
a
> tow hitch on a Cessna or a Supercub.

Or, buy or build a winch and be independant.

Craig-

[Bill Daniels]

"Stuart Grant" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Volunteered to work the SSA booth at Sun-N-Fun along with members of
> other Florida Soaring Clubs and folks from Seminole Lake Gliderport.
> Talked to lots of power pilots and glider pilots from all over the US,
> Canada and at least a dozen from Europe.
>
> Common complaint was "Nowhere close to fly." I would ask where they
> were from and tell them about the SSA website and the "Where to Fly"
> section. Knowing soaring sites in Florida pretty well it became clear
> that there are some areas in Florida (and Georgia and Alabama....) that
> have a bunch of glider pilots living in close proximity that might be
> able to form a club if they knew about each other.
>
> How about a section on the SSA website "Want to Fly?" where current or
> prospective pilots could leave contact info. If there are 8 or 10
> pilots living within 30 miles of the same airport they might be able to
> get together and buy a Blanik or a 2-33 and convince somebody to put a
> tow hitch on a Cessna or a Supercub.
>

You know, that's a pretty good idea.

I constantly talk to people who live an inconvenient distance from a club or
gliding FBO and I suspect, as you do, that getting them together would
result in new clubs being formed.

A "Want to form a glider club?" section on the SSA web site might do it.
Since it's your idea, e-mail it to Dennis Wright. I bet he will like it.

Bill Daniels

[F.L. Whiteley]

wrote:

>
> Stuart Grant wrote:
>> Volunteered to work the SSA booth at Sun-N-Fun along with members of
>> other Florida Soaring Clubs and folks from Seminole Lake Gliderport.
>> Talked to lots of power pilots and glider pilots from all over the
> US,
>> Canada and at least a dozen from Europe.
>>
>> Common complaint was "Nowhere close to fly." I would ask where they
>> were from and tell them about the SSA website and the "Where to Fly"
>> section. Knowing soaring sites in Florida pretty well it became clear
>> that there are some areas in Florida (and Georgia and Alabama....)
> that
>> have a bunch of glider pilots living in close proximity that might be
>> able to form a club if they knew about each other.
>>
>> How about a section on the SSA website "Want to Fly?" where current
> or
>> prospective pilots could leave contact info. If there are 8 or 10
>> pilots living within 30 miles of the same airport they might be able
> to
>> get together and buy a Blanik or a 2-33 and convince somebody to put
> a
>> tow hitch on a Cessna or a Supercub.
>
> Or, buy or build a winch and be independant.
>
> Craig-
Whether a tow plane or winch, it's an interesting idea. We'll see what we
can do. It might dovetail nicely with Doug Easton's project to put a
soaring site map on the SSA web site.

Frank Whiteley
SSA Clubs and Chapters Committee

[M B]

Taken one step further, how about a map plotting all
of the SSA
members also. Assuming the club one is automated,
and
just accepts a list of club adresses as input, why
not just do the same thing with the member addresses
as input?

I'm not suggesting the member NAMES be included necessarily,
but a dot for every member might be quite instructive/surprising..