SSA Growth and Retention Committee Supports 'Proving Grounds'

[Patrick (LS6-b EH)]

Hi all, many SSA members might have seen the eNews announcement this week of SSA providing support for up to 40 chapters and commercial operators willing to subscribe to the Proving Grounds to support novice pilot development.

The response has been positive and rapid - thank you from myself and partners Casey and Chris.

To try to serve the wave of interest, we (the Proving Grounds team) are planning a presentation and Q&A of "what" this is, and "how" to configure a system for your club on Friday, December 18 @ 19:30EST/16:30PST.

If you or a representative of your club might be interested in participating, please get in touch with me, or through the contact form on soaringtasks.com and I'll forward the invite.

Look for an article about the Proving Grounds in the January edition of Soaring.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Ulrich Werneburg]

We have run the Proving Grounds cross-country flying initiative for over two years now and it has been an unqualified success. It provides a safe and fun way to introduce new pilots to cross-country flying as well as providing more experienced pilots with a bit of a challenge on those "not so great" days. The scoring system is automatic, trouble free and glider handicapped and provides all participants with easy performance comparisons over three pre-set tasks.

The system requires a bit of simple set-up work but once that is completed it operates very simply with very minimal on-going tasks required, such as listing of flights completed on a results board in the clubhouse or office.

Our cross-country approved club members have taken full advantage of the scheme and are now eager to fly the tasks on any suitable day. They've also become much more confident about trying longer tasks on those really good days.

All in all, Proving Grounds is an excellent way to interest members in cross-country flying.

On Sunday, December 13, 2020 at 8:15:17 p.m. UTC-5, Patrick (LS6-b EH) wrote:
> Hi all, many SSA members might have seen the eNews announcement this week of SSA providing support for up to 40 chapters and commercial operators willing to subscribe to the Proving Grounds to support novice pilot development.
>
> The response has been positive and rapid - thank you from myself and partners Casey and Chris.
>
> To try to serve the wave of interest, we (the Proving Grounds team) are planning a presentation and Q&A of "what" this is, and "how" to configure a system for your club on Friday, December 18 @ 19:30EST/16:30PST.
>
> If you or a representative of your club might be interested in participating, please get in touch with me, or through the contact form on soaringtasks.com and I'll forward the invite.
>
> Look for an article about the Proving Grounds in the January edition of Soaring.
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick