On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 18:20:36 UTC, Jack wrote:

: My club is very much a mutually supportive environment for my soaring
: activities, and there is nothing less complex in aviation that I know
: of than flying sailplanes.

Well, if I want to fly a sailplane in the UK, I have to

a) join a club

b) travel to the club one day on most flyable weekends for a year
until solo, then

c) arrive at the club by 9am or so for a reasonable place on the
flying list

d) depend on a tug pilot/winch driver, and ground crew to get me
airborne

and that's without the additional complications of retrieve crew if I
fly cross country. On the other hand, if I want to fly a paraglider in
the UK I have to

a) take a training course over a few weekends

b) climb up a convenient hll

c) jump off.

OK's a different experience, but it's still flying and if that's the
driving urge, not travelling huge numbers of miles or pole squattng in
wave, but just flying for the love of being off the ground then I am
quite sure that foot launched gliders offer significant reductions in
cost and time required.

: If "cost, complexity and infrastructure" are major impediments to
: soaring for some people I cannot sympathize with them at all.

And that, with all due respect, is the sort of attitude that explains
why gliding is in such trouble. I, on the contrary, have enormous
sympathy for those whose burning desire to fly is thwarted by The
System, and I'm all in favour of making things cheaper and simpler
whenever possible.

Ian