Ben Flewett wrote in message ...
Lennie,

Given that you have quit gliding, why don't you quit
'contributing' to this site? I don't understand why
you persist in partaking of discussions on a subject
you are no longer interested in. However, I strongly
suspect it because you do not require assistance from
other persons in obtaining sexual gratification.

Ok, since you chose to go to the low inuendo, you should well know
that I am very comfortable there too. Such as, I firmly suspect that
the joystick in your hand most of the time is not connected to your
aircraft.

That out of the way now, I know, not believe, KNOW, that your reaction
to anything I have said has been "Lennie said it, so it must be
wrong." I KNOW that you have not opened your unseeing eyes or your
firmly closed mind to look and see if just maybe some of these things
are happening where you are. LIke most of the others, you're sitting
on your haunches waiting for some mythical "national organization" to
come up with all the magic bullets, that require you to do nothing but
go about your own way and change nothing. I'm just ****ing sorry, but
that isn't going to do it, and I've said so many times. It's going to
take INDIVIDUAL effort, and a lot of it on a lot of levels to make any
change. Getting new people is only one part of the problem, bringing
them in the front and watching them go out the back isn't doing
anything. If you're going to look at "What's wrong with the world"
and ignore "What are we doing wrong", you might as well not look at
anything. If you look, and see something, and say nothing, you are
the problem. If you're going to ignore anything that might show you
as not the model of perfection, don't even bother looking.

If you find that you can't have any fun in anything less than a $50k+
ship with at least 40+:1, and others are having a ball with a 23:1
1-26, then I'd say that maybe the problem is in the man, not the
machine. IF the lower performance doesn't meet your interests, it
might behoove you to realize that for many others, it's perfectly
satisfactory. Realize that while for you a $100K ship may be no
strain, but for many others, a $10k ship might be a very expensive
toy.

Now, to ask you to do the extremely difficult task of drawing a mental
parallel, mentally substitute "megabuck german glass" for "Hardinge
lathe" and (Insert favorite plane of derision) for "$300 Speedway
lathe". I know people that have the Hardinge lathes, and on these
very expensive machines, the finest made in the world, they
consistantly do lower quality work than I get from my Speedway. Are
they having more fun with their toys than I am with mine? No. Do
they get more satisfaction from what they do than I? No. Do they
badmouth the Speedway? Damn right, they do. It's a POS that they
can't do anything with, and don't see how anyone could possibly enjoy
running it. Do you see the parallel? Or is your mind so firmly
closed, your belief that soaring has nothing in common with other
hobbies that you WON'T see? I don't have a Hardinge, I would love to
have a Hardinge, but $30k for a hobby machine doesn't make any sense
at all. Any lathe is better than no lathe, make that, any glider is
better than no glider. Are you now exhausted from the mental effort
required? Good, read on.

LIke any other hobby in decline, soaring doesn't have one problem, it
has many. Unless soaring looks at ALL of the problems, finds the ones
that are the most damaging, and makes what changes are needed to
correct those first, the end can be easily predicted. I've said it
before, and now again, sitting on your ass waiting for someone to do
it on a national level will get you exactly squat. Stand facing
north. Point your index finger south. You are now pointing to the
person that has to do something if you don't want to continue to watch
the decline.