alice wrote:
..
Brian,
I forgot to mention that the EAA chapter that recieved the overhaul
came back much bigger and better than before.They had the $$$ to finish
projects (Like a club hangar) that had been proposed for years but not
funded.I think SSA management has alot to gain by embezeling funds or
directing contracts to friends etc..Why do you think that only
prominent SSA bussiness members have regular columns in the magazine.

The regular columnists are Bob Wander, John Cochrane, George Thelen,
Frauke Elber, and Charlie Spratt. Bob Wander probably qualifies as a
"prominent business member", but the rest of them?

I
am a member of several national organizations, EAA, AOPA,AMA, and
ALPA and of all of these, only Airline Pilots Association is run as
poorly as SSA (With fully paid staff no less).Of course no organization
is going to keep everyone happy, but lets take a look at what SSA has
acomplished for its members.1; Failed to grow the sport of soaring by
any meaningful amount.

A very tough job, when you see how it's going in the hang glider world
and in other countries. Just staying even takes a lot of work.

2 The wonderfull magazine which has a fraction
of the useful information of its British and Austrailian
counterparts.

I don't know about the Aussie magazine, but compare Sailplane & Gliding
six issues a year to the twelve the SSA puts out, and it seems pretty
even to me. S&G has many good articles, but there is a lot of pages
devoted to club stuff, airspace, and regulatory issues that don't have
any value to me.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org