Region II in Wurtsboro this year will be featuring the Bus Class. We have 5, possibly 6, mid-performance 2 seaters (ASK-21s and Grobs) lined up with experienced front seaters and newbies in back. The local clubs plus the host FBO have gone out of their way to make this happen, and we should be introducing at least a dozen new folks to the sport.

Thanks to Hank Nixon (UH) for being the sparkplug (AKA really annoying pest) who has made this happen.

P3



On Monday, June 18, 2012 5:25:59 PM UTC-4, noel.wade wrote:
This is good stuff, John. Glad to hear its happening!

Up in Ephrata, WA we hold an annual even called the "Dust Up" (due to
the prolific Dust Devils in that area). Its a 3-day event over
Memorial Day weekend and we run it like a mini Sports-Class-
Regionals. We hold seminars both in-person and online ahead of the
event, have night-time discussions and round-tables at the event, and
fly interesting-but-not-difficult tasks, to ease folks into contest-
flying and take away the fear-factor. Its worked very well, with
average annual participation up around 25-30 pilots.

This year we switched to an XC & Badge camp, as we have a good crop of
new pilots and post-solo students in our region right now. We lined
up 4 two-seat gliders and did a lot of mentor-flights to give folks
their first taste of real cross-country soaring (moderate 90-150
minute flights out to turnpoints ~30 miles from the home airport, so
we could launch each two-place ship twice a day). People really raved
about the dual XC mentoring and seemed to pick up a lot from these
sessions. With over 35 pilots and over 120 tows in 3 days, it was a
great success and we hope to continue it.

The plan now is to alternate the event format each year: We mentor a
bunch of pilots in XC flying on the first year, then they go off and
spend the season honing those skills... The following year we do a
mock-contest and give them a taste of that experience. By cycling
between these, we hope to keep the event fresh and keep pumping out XC
and/or contest pilots.

Would love to see more clubs and regions doing stuff like this! The
more we challenge pilots and give them things to learn and do, the
longer they seem to stick around in the sport. I'm happy to pass
along tips, seminar materials, or other info to anyone who wants to
try to put on something similar.

--Noel