I think you're seeing one of the primary reasons that soaring is in
decline and that people want to blame 2-33s. Times and people have
changed. Instant gratification, me first, and a sense of entitlement
are all pretty common in modern society. What often hasn't changed is
the approach that clubs take to attracting and addressing the changing
demographic.

I've seen it professed that the downfall of soaring is in fact due to
high performance glass ships and the fact that they result in people
being gone all day and that there is no challenge or camaraderie like
in the good ole days when people landed out in their 1-26 near the
airport every weekend. I'm sure there is some semblance of truth in
that, but only when taken into context of how society has changed and
that pilots of the 70's or 80's had a different set of pressures and
norms to work against.

Ultimately it is the people involved and how they welcome new faces
into soaring that probably makes the biggest difference. I appreciate
the constructive tack that this conversation is taking. As the
president of a small and struggling club, I can use all of the help
and ideas I can get in trying to motivate existing members to come out
and fly and to get new people involved.

For what it is worth, despite the feeling that not having a sexy ship
in our fleet was hurting our long term retention, I drove the
acquisition of a second 2-33 as a priority over something higher
performance. If you want good activity in a club, you need to make
sure that students that go solo have something to fly and that it
doesn't interrupt training as well.

Morgan


On Sep 16, 10:29*am, Brad wrote:
I learned to fly in a 2-33 years ago at a commercial operation. There
were a few L-13's on the field as well, but for some reason the 2-33
and I seemed to do well together. I viewed the Schweitzer as a means
to an end, and that was to get my ticket and move on to something
better. At Issaquah Soaring that meant a 1-26. I must have been very
naive by todays standards: I didn't know that the 2-33 was an ugly
piece of **** and if I was smart I would have demanded the L-13 or
simply given up my dream of soaring..............as to the 1-26 the
day I got checked out to fly it made me think I had finally "arrived"
and could now play with the "big boys" Of course the big boys flew
ASW-15's, ASW-20's and an RS-15 that I thought looked like a
rocketship.

I couldn't wait to help these guys rig their ships, as a guy in his
late teens/early twenties the thought of helping these guys rig their
unbelievably cool gliders was a source of endless enthusiasm and
inspiration.

Fast forward to now: At our field it's very rare for any student or
low time pilot to come over and help any of the private guys rig. In
fact I'm led to believe that they have been told that we are a bunch
of low level XC flying lunatics and should be avoided! The students
tend to huddle together and talk amongst themselves or feverishly text
their buddies. I don't recall any of them asking us seasoned pilots
about local conditions, what the weather might do today, where the
best routes for XC might be........I find it all very strange. True,
they are students, but someday students are supposed to become pilots
and soaring pilots are want to go XC, I think.......

Our club would also do well to start making the instructor corp pay
monthly dues, and to make students pay the full membership fees and
dues. We probably see a shortfall of over $5000 a year due to our
current policies. From what I've seen some of our instructors seem to
think they and their students have priority on the field. More than
once while waiting for the towplane I've seen a Blanik get pulled in
front of a waiting private ship, with the excuse that students have
priority.

Maybe students are the future of soaring, well...............yes, some
are...........out of the many that start I bet only a handful will
move forward and experience the full joy of what soaring has to offer.
I don't believe it is our business to push people towards this,
something like soaring pulls people...............those that don't fly
a lot in my opinion are dangerous and should leave the
sport.................perhaps to text their buddies and tell them how
rad it was to fly in a glider.

Brad