The airline marketing departments have unintentionally helped create this
problem by creating a "superman" aura around their pilots. By inference,
their message says all other pilots have lesser skills and it would be folly
for mere mortals to attempt flight by their own hand.

Yet, I think the interest in flying is still there. I haven't checked
recently, but first person flight simulators were the best selling computer
games on the market. Airshows are the best attended outdoor events of all.
It's hard to argue that a fairly large segment of the general public doesn't
have a fascination with flight.

I find it easy to elicit the interest of non pilots in the concept of
soaring. The problem arises when it is suggested that they, all by
themselves, could learn to take the controls and soar. To a degree, they
are right. Not everyone can learn to fly. The difficult part is to light a
spark in those that can learn.

I have long suspected that PC based Flight Simulators might be a key since
they are such a successful product. Most of these simulators are open
systems to the degree that new 'aircraft' can be designed for them.
Unfortunately, there is a dearth of really good simulated gliders.

There are a lot of really good computer people in this sport. If they built
some great simulated gliders that could be downloaded free from soaring web
sites along with a pitch that the real experience is available at their
local gliderport, we might see small but steady stream of real talent
showing up for lessons.

For those just taking rides, handing them a CD with flight sim 'gliders'
that matched what they just rode in might be a pretty good marketing tool
too.

Bill Daniels

"F.L. Whiteley" wrote in message
...
Soaring is declining because the experience of flight is highly
accessible.
It is more common to find young people in North America and Europe that
have
flown somewhere on a jet, achieving FL350 or greater, than would be the
common youthful experience of many following RAS. I would expect that if
I
were to survey the local high school, I would find more than 50% of the
students had flown at least once. In my HS days, this would have been
5-10%. Many of my generation fly because we seek the mystic of flight,
soaring being one of the venues. EAA has a whole host of greybeards,
because propellars have always been more accessible. Flying high, fast,
and
far has been de-mystified for a much larger segment of my society. As a
result, I expect the number seeking to soar to be a lesser percentage. As
the population grows however, I also expect the total number of seekers to
grow. Now, how do we reach them?

Frank Whiteley