Chris,

You bring up several interesting points.

I learned to fly gliders AND SOAR in a BGA club. As all instructors were trained at a national course, they did all speak the same patter and follow the same syllabus. It works, wonderfully. However, in the USA, we do have the FAA, which gets in the way to an extent. Thus, I do see best results in the US when the student and instructor are a good fit and work towards the rating one on one. Unfortunately, several clubs work instructor du jour, so student progress may be haphazard. Some clubs have worked to standardize instructor performance. In the BGA club, the instructor would take every opportunity to soar when it presented itself. My observation is that a lot of soaring is bypassed by US instructors while training to PTS standards. Just sayin'. What's the real goal after all? Effective instructors are the key.

Southern California Soaring Academy is an approach, not perfect, but might well be considered by others wishing to promote a full time soaring organization employing professional instructors. It is a 501(c)(3). Should the SSA establish a national soaring center? Probably not. Too much risk for a member services organization. Should the SSA promote such a center? Absolutely. A 501(c)(3) is certainly a such a vehicle and is not a difficult process. You simply must answer the question, "what is the public benefit?" While other countries do give sports grants and governmental help to soaring organizations, our way is to allow local definition of the 'public benefit' and allow a tax benefit for doing so.

Yesterday I was informed that a newish SSA chapter had received it's 501(c)(3) determination. Another received its determination a 3-4 months ago. The IRS log jam created by the 501(c)(4) political re-education camps may have cleared (same office). There are others in progress. This is a local issue and needs local initiative. The SSA has resources to help a successful outcome. Before you departed the CONUS and when you served a president of your chapter, you were offered help, but the initiative to proceed required local organization. You were also offered support from another 501(c)(3) soaring operation. Sadly, the opportunity did not materialize and an unfortunate accident kind of brought things to a halt. Not casting blame, just saying I think there was a lost opportunity and timing was not on our side.

I, and others, have pestered the SSF to develop a national syllabus. They have refused, for good reason. There are several good commercial products out there. Likewise, the SSA reduced it's SSA store offerings. At one time the SSA was the only place to find several soaring items. However, we decided not to complete with our Business Members. Some asked us to continue offering their products, but we also want to support them and hope our members will also. It was not a decision taken lightly, but we want our Business Members to be good resources for our membership also. We were well aware of friction between Sporty's and AOPA when AOPA started offering competing products.

So, a US National Soaring Center? Flesh out the concept a bit. Would the SSA contribute materially? Perhaps, if it passes the smell test. Use the SSA as a pass through organization for donations? Doubtful, this is a local matter and not such a high hurdle as some perceive.

Notice how Boeing poked it's finger in the eye of the FAA and Congress at Oshkosh? Certainly a good motivation for starting youth in soaring as early as possible is to help them work towards for an ATP if they have an aviation career in sight. There are a number of youth soaring scholarships available, some from the SSA, many others from local initiatives. Get those 'plane crazy' youth into the air!

Frank Whiteley