On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 11:53:06 AM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Some of you might be interested to know that the UK just held its 2015 Junior Nationals a few weeks ago. Nearly 70 juniors pilots (yes, SEVENTY) competed in the event. As an American, I nearly fell over in my chair when I saw the article (and photo of the grid).

Back in the USA, the SSA doesn't even bother to hold a Junior Nationals. I cannot recall when the SSA last held a specific Junior competition? Only a few Junior glider pilots competed in SSA sanctioned contests this year nationwide (even with a hefty discount offer from the SSA). The SSA, to the best of my knowledge, has no real plan or strategy to improve Junior soaring numbers. To be honest, few leaders in the USA seem concerned about truly developing a vibrant junior XC soaring culture. Some even bitterly question if Junior XC or contest participation is relevant or important to the health of the SSA or US Soaring. When is the last time we saw an article, poll or speech on improving youth soaring XC skills/participation/enthusiasm in the SSA or USA?

The UK isn't satisfied with just a highly successful 2015 Junior Nationals. Now the UK is next holding a Junior winter XC series in the coming months. They already have 50 Juniors (FIFTY, not done yet) signed up for the first event in the series. Yesterday, British Soaring (SSA equivalent) was on Facebook soliciting more gliding clubs to "send their dual XC ships with instructors" to keep up with "demand." Amazing.

If the UK is developing this kind of energy and enthusiasm at their youth XC events, what does that say about our nonexistent youth XC training program in the SSA? Yes, these are all XC events and NOT primary training, rides or kiddie playtime. Yes, these events are all equal or larger than the SSA's largest sanctioned contests (Seniors (interesting in and of itself really) and Perry). What benefits does a strong youth XC culture provide the UKs soaring community vs. our own?

The UK equivalent of the SSA has a Junior Development Committee (JDC). Clearly, the UK puts a huge amount of emphasis on this "opportunity." They likely put their best people on it. Does the SSA even have a youth soaring function or officer? Why not? What is more important than a highly developed youth XC soaring culture to a country's soaring future?

How can the UK, a country of only 60 million citizens, be so highly developed in terms of Jr soaring pilot XC skills, proficiency, organization, events and enthusiasm while the USA (a country of some 330 million) doesn't even have an organized Junior program, bother to hold a Junior Nationals or any have real Junior culture whatsoever? They few Juniors we have are left to themselves to figure it out. They have zero funding and little support.

How many U.S. Junior pilots are capable of flying true cross country let alone contest tasks? Developing Junior XC flying skills is not magic. It's simply a function of inspiration, qualified instruction, and motivation. XC soaring is also quite fun to learn and master. It is an extremely satisfying challenge to meet. XC might just challenge our youth pilots enough to keep them interested in the sport. That appears to be the case in the UK. And the UK is not alone, most European countries are also quite successful with their youth XC soaring programs.

What does all this tell us about the health of U.S. Soaring (SSA)?

What does this tell us about our leadership focus, culture, priorities, and strategy? What does this tell us about our soaring clubs (many actively DISCOURAGE cross-country flight!)? What does this tell us about our glider instruction culture? Our mentorship results?

How can the UK (and many other countries to be perfectly honest) be so amazingly successful at developing Junior XC soaring energy and while the US (SSA) is so impressively "unsuccessful?"

We hear the occasional murmurs in the SSA about our falling numbers, poor international competition results, aging demographics, etc.

Does the USA's lack of an organized and a high priority youth soaring program bother anyone else? Is there anything to learn here? Is there anything that we might want to consider changing? What is our "leadership" doing about this problem? Do they even recognize it as "a problem?" Is our lack of Junior participation and XC skill development even on the SSA priority list? On our soaring clubs priority list? What's our strategy? What are our action items for 2015-2016? Are there any presentations scheduled at the upcoming SSA convention?

I hope this sparks a productive discussion.

Sean
7T

Before we can host Junior Nationals with 70 plus participants we need to start producing the pilots needed to accomplish this feat. Soaring was not pioneered by a bunch of old men flying expensive super gliders, in many instances the early pioneers were barely more than schoolboys, in small groups resourceful enough to further their ambitions on a shoestring budget.

Take a look at this topic from August 2014, A proposal to increase membership, cross-country pilots, competitors, and world champions (USA)

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ng/KU845t6yWNY

and do a find on posts that contain "KSS" or "Piotr Szafranski".

The message I get is organization of training in a group setting produces the best results. Add in cheap launch facilities and you can produce new pilots and advance them to competent soaring pilots rapidly and inexpensively which opens up soaring to a whole new group of participants including youth.. An understanding needs to be gained that in the early development of a soaring pilot high launches and high performance equipment produce little add on value and in most instances are detrimental to rapid advancement in the early stages of pilot development. Focus on individuals instead of organized group training is inefficient and slows down the whole process and produces anemic results

Piotr Szafranski claims Polish gliding has been successful using the principals of cheap and simple equipment and organization of flying activities in group settings accomplishing both efficiency and rapid advancement while containing costs. He also hints the advantages of group training achieve more inclusiveness and sense of belonging giving people even more incentive to stay in it for the long run.

We have plenty of noise about making soaring visible and getting people to try it but that is where it stops and we abandon the newcomers to their own devices. Recruitment is just the first stage in the development of a soaring pilot. Managing the new pilot's progress from ab-initio to solo, to soaring pilot and then cross country pilot are the stages we neglect that are essential to the final graduation to contest pilot.

Club Class is the only contest class that is growing. Seems to fit the above model. Make soaring affordable to young people and reduce the barriers to advancement and we might one day be able to put on a Junior Nationals.