On Friday, February 22, 2013 6:05:10 PM UTC-6, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Friday, February 22, 2013 6:58:19 PM UTC-5, Ramy wrote:



I think the main point of this thread is that instead of focusing on attracting real youth, we should focus on the middle age crowd who can actually afford soaring and have the time to pursue it.



Both demographics are important. Today's youth will be 45 in 2038. The pattern of early exposure and mid-life adoption is well established.



Teaching basic skills to the young addresses the difficulty of teaching those skills to the middle aged. Plus line boys speed up the launch rate. They hustle.

yep, lots of my students have been out of flying for about 18-23 years. some had gotten their licenses in college, some had just taken a lesson or two, but many had done some flying in high school and college and then decided that a job, house, wife, and kids were more important, and were coming back to it after the house was paid off and the kids out of the house.