Worlds first?

[nimbusgb]

Do we have a unique situation?

My daughter, much to her dads delight, has decided to take up gliding.
Last weekend we signed her up as a member. She has also brought along
another teenage girl who will sign up this weekend. At first I thought
having two teenage girls at once in a single club might be unusual. It
turns out we actually have at least 3, possibly 4 and there may be
more coming! These are all normal members attracted to the sport
outside things like air cadets or such.

Now you may have noticed that I haven't mentioned which club we belong
too. For good reason! One of those teenage girls is my daughter and I
am not keen on attracting a horde of teenage boys to the club, much as
we'd like the business. :)
I'm considering taking up flying a primary glider or even tugging to
ensure I spend as much time on the ground as possible! :)

As a matter of interest the subject of gliding has been raised at her
school and it surprised me to hear that even in the South East of the
UK pretty much nothing is known about aviation by the youth, certainly
gliding was a complete mystery to her peers according to Jennifer.

[Tom Gardner]

On Feb 14, 8:53 am, nimbusgb > wrote:
> Do we have a unique situation?

No, I'm pleased to say!

> My daughter, much to her dads delight, has decided to take up gliding.
> Last weekend we signed her up as a member. She has also brought along
> another teenage girl who will sign up this weekend. At first I thought
> having two teenage girls at once in a single club might be unusual. It
> turns out we actually have at least 3, possibly 4 and there may be
> more coming! These are all normal members attracted to the sport
> outside things like air cadets or such.

The same is true at at least one other club, Cotswold GC.
My daughter and I took up gliding a year ago. There's
another new-ish member and his daughter is also gliding with him,
so that's two 16/17yo girls.

I'd like to put in a plug for using gliding in conjunction with the
Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme "skill" section -- they
are a very good combination. The DofE is completely unrelated
to air cadets.

There was a significant learning curve before we started since
the DofE was an unknown quantity to both us and members of
the club, and the school and DofE people didn't know about gliding.
We were fortunate that the chairman (Mike Weston), CFI
(Simon Buckley) and mentor (Paul Gray) were prepared to put
in the effort required to
- sort out a set of objectives
- do a bit a bit of administrivia to show that the club was safe
and appropriately qualified
Their effort is _very_ much appreciated.

After the initial setup there was almost zero extra effort
since the DofE requirements are automatically satisfied
by the everyday activities. That's important since club
members and instructors weren't inconvenienced by the
DofE.


> As a matter of interest the subject of gliding has been raised at her
> school and it surprised me to hear that even in the South East of the
> UK pretty much nothing is known about aviation by the youth, certainly
> gliding was a complete mystery to her peers according to Jennifer.

A girl at my daughter's school also went solo last year, but
we only found out about that after the event.

My daughter has found that her schoolfriends (and people
in general) don't have any concept whatsoever about
gliding and aviation. They are astounded to find that
- you don't have to be a professional nor an adult to fly
- you can go solo before you can get in a car
- going solo is probably cheaper than learning to drive a car
- aerobatics are possible
Shame.

[Martin Gregorie[_1_]]

Tom Gardner wrote:
>
> My daughter has found that her schoolfriends (and people
> in general) don't have any concept whatsoever about
> gliding and aviation. They are astounded to find that
> - you don't have to be a professional nor an adult to fly
> - you can go solo before you can get in a car
> - going solo is probably cheaper than learning to drive a car
> - aerobatics are possible
> Shame.
>
I suspect that the rise and rise of mass air travel might have something
to do with this. Its managed to convert the wonderful experience of
flying into a humdrum experience that's almost indistinguishable from
traveling by rail or bus. Wait, there is one differentiator: all
passengers having a view out is usual in road and rail travel.

The other problem, of course, is that the Noise Police have managed to
drive all GA activity well away from towns: out of site == out of mind.

My club gets a steady feed of students from the local university, but
then it is an offshoot of the long-established university gliding club
and maintains the association.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

[Tom Gardner]

On Feb 14, 11:58 am, Martin Gregorie >
wrote:
> I suspect that the rise and rise of mass air travel might have something
> to do with this. Its managed to convert the wonderful experience of
> flying into a humdrum experience that's almost indistinguishable from
> traveling by rail or bus. Wait, there is one differentiator: all
> passengers having a view out is usual in road and rail travel.

Hot-air ballooning avoids that trap.
There's 100 times more adverts/events/etc for hot air
ballooning than for gliding. Why? Perhaps the Bristol
balloon festival and clouds of balloons drifting across
the city centre during rush hour have something to do
with it! I wish I could think of something similar for
gliding.


> The other problem, of course, is that the Noise Police have managed to
> drive all GA activity well away from towns: out of site == out of mind.

I certainly agree with "out of site == out of mind", and that's
something that might be changeable.

I'd be interested to whether putting the glider on display in
Canary Wharf (S&G passim) has resulted in any long-term
benefit.

My club took a glider to a local airshow (all of 4 miles away!),
and it resulted in at least one new member. Sure, the audience
was already aviation aware, but so what?

Another club displaying a glider to the Airbus composites
facility in Filton, and they got a decent spread in the local
newspaper. By and large the local newspapers are pretty
interested in any local story that is even slightly different
to the usual stuff.

[Vaughn Simon]

"nimbusgb" > wrote in message
...
> Do we have a unique situation?
>
> My daughter, much to her dads delight, has decided to take up gliding.

Welcome to the club. I ran wings for my daughter and paid her soaring club
bills for several wonderful years. I had the unique experience of being her
first passenger while I was still a non-pilot and the ink was literally still
wet on her new permit. The hours we flew together are some of my most cherished
parenting memories. I would love to do it all again.

Want to change places?

Vaughn