Peter - that may explain why there are fewer gliderports, but not fewer
pilots.

I live in Phoenix, which has for 30ish years now has enjoyed the presence of
Turf Soaring on the northwest side and Estrella on the south. If anything
they should be enjoying more business, not less, especially considering the
order of magnitude growth in the area since those operations began. I've
previously stated on this newsgroup my opinions on why participation in the
sport is declining and won't repeat them here, but I believe it has little
to do with urban expansion. Much more to do with numbers of military trained
pilots since WWII and competition from other sports. It ain't as easy to
become a pilot as it used to be, either.

Anecdote: when I started gliding lessons in Fall 2003, I did so at Estrella,
which was closest to my home in Tempe. I've been an active skydiver in
southern AZ since 1988 and in all that time I had never heard of Arizona
Soaring or Estrella Sailport. No print or radio advertisement, not even any
tourist-visit-us brochures in the rack of them you see in hotel lobbies. I
was greatly surprised that in 15 years I had never heard of Estrella, and it
was in my own backyard. In fact, the only reason I knew about it was that my
boss had started flying there earlier in the year!

Anecdote 2: In my hotel room here at the Marriott TownePlace Suites in
Hawthorne, CA, there is a rack of sight-seers brochures in the lobby. There
is a brochure for Skydive Elsinore, energetically touting the reader to make
a parachute jump. There is gliderport at the same field, and another one at
Warner Springs less than an hour away. But no brochures from either
gliderport in the rack. Why not?

-Ted in Tempe

"Peter Gadd" wrote in message
...
I think part of the reason for the decline in soaring
is the rapid expansion of urban areas, I used to fly
back in teh 70s, and there were 3 gliderports within
an hours drive. They have all closed due to the expansion
of suburbia. The closest field with decent soaring
is now over 2 hours away each way. That takes 4 hours
out of a weekend day just to drive! After a grueling
week at work, spending a half day in a car driving
to & from a gliderport is more than I can take. I
will be retiring soon, and intend to jump back in,
but I'm already spending at least 2 hrs a day commuting,
and I can't stand the thought of doubling that on weekends!