Hi Ray,

On 1 Feb 2005 17:34:41 GMT, Ray Lovinggood
wrote:


In America, it seems the glider fields are out in the
boonies and getting to them requires a car. Club members
come from all over and sometimes, getting a ride isn't
so easy. Parents have to come out and they might not
be willing to spend all day at the field.

I guess THIS is the point why soaring is an old-mens' sport especially
in the US - the distances.

Even in Germany some clubs don't have a field close at hand - and
these clubs usually have significant trouble to find new young
members. I certainly would not spend four hours per weekend in the car
to go gliding.

A couple of years ago I stll used to think that all you US guys had to
do was to start a gliding club similar to Germany examples, but
nowadays I have learned that structures in the US are on most places
too different from Europe to allow such a club to be run successfully
on the long term.


Also, the youth members (me too) enjoyed driving the
Lepo when it wasn't our turn to fly. They were too
young to drive on the road, but that didn't prevent
them from driving the Lepo.

(Bonus points to those who know 'Lepo.')

You should have mentionend that some of these kids actually started to
prefer driving (and crashing) the Lepo over flying... vbg




Bye
Andreas