XC in club ships & other great US news

Been a lot of gloomy talk here lately so, as my first flying role model
Rocky the Squirrel used to say, "and now for something we hope you'll really
like". The following info on some things we're doing that are working for
us. I hope it's useful to you in growing XC at your club.

I've been a member of the Soaring Club of Houston for about 10 years, since
I began committing aviation. In the last few years a few members have put a
real push into growing the number of pilots who venture out beyond the local
area. This past season we've really begun to see the results of the work
invested. This post is the Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why's of what
the club has done.

Why - We believe that XC soaring is the key to building and retaining active
members. God love the members who pay their dues and only show up on duty
days, but a truly active club thrives on members who love to fly. We also
want more people to fly with as we build our own XC skills. Personally, I
flew XC all alone for several years because the folks in our club who went
XC were very experienced and very fast and I was in a low performance ship
with skills to match. It's great now to fly with others who are building
their skills.

Who - The Soaring Club of Houston is a large (almost 150 members) club
located on the coastal plains 50 miles NW of downtown Houston. Soaring is
usually OK to Good, but rarely fantastic. There are usually thermals,
nicely spaced, but they typically are 2-4 knots to about 4 or 5000 AGL. A
fantastic day will have 6 kts and cloudbase btwn 7 & 8000 agl.

What #1 - XC Training - one club member really took on this challenge and
deserves to have his name called out--Bob Kellner. He put together a series
of discussions and clinics that were well attended. He did most of the
material preparation himself but also brought in speakers for specific
topics. They covered all aspects of planning, weather, landout site
selection, etc. These classes were held on Saturday mornings in the club
house. I believe this year was the 2nd year of classes.

What #2 - club contests - we have several but the most important one is
based on miles flown. Pilots submit their best 5 flights for scoring--no
speed points. This has created both a group of people who are extending
their personal bests and a group who are burning up the sky in Russias,
PW5s and the L33--they're now regularly turning in 150 - 250 mile flights.

What #3 - inter-club contests - There are 3 of these. We have a travelling
trophy that goes between SCOH and the Greater Houston Soaring Assoc. The
two clubs are Silver distance apart. If you fly to the other club to
collect the trophy, you get a free tow for your return flight. Trophy
grabbers are sometimes chased home to return the trophy right away--a lot of
fun.
Fault Line Flyers--about 110nm away-- and SCOH also share a travelling
trophy--look out guys, we're coming next year!
Lastly, we've started another contest between SCOH and GHSA that is a 200K
FAI triangle using SCOH and GHSA as two of the turnpoints.

What #4 - XC Week - For the second year in a row we picked a week and
rounded up tow pilots for each day of the week. We run it kind of like a
contest, with a morning weather briefing and a task discussion. The weather
briefer would arrive with two suggested tasks, one each for 36:1 and 36:1.
Discussion among the pilots usually ended up scrapping the suggested task
and deciding on a new one--a great exercies in weather analysis and flight
planning. At the end of the day, we'd replay flights on the computer. We
had one day with 7 flights of 300km or better--2 by PW-5's; 2 by Russia's; 1
by the club L33; 1 by Jantar 48-3; 1 by Mosquito. In 3 flights the club
L33 racked up 500 miles! I believe the best flight for a Russia that week
was 240miles.
During the XC week we had many outlandings at airfields and one land out in
a field. All were uneventful. We flew on one of the best days of the
season and we flew on days we normally wouldn't have left the field. Too
bad our XC week is the week after the SSA OLC contest ended. The whole
thing was an absolute blast and I think some of the participants will be
entering contests next year. You just might see a lot of new faces in
Uvalde next year at the regionals.

What #5 - club purchase of single place ships and rules allowing their use
for XC flight. Theoretically, XC flight has been possible in club ships for
some time--it just hasn't happened and the culture hasn't been hugely
supportive. Today, if you participate in the XC classes and get a bronze
badge and your pilot certificate, you can fly club ships XC. This includes
the Grob, Lark, and L-23's as well as the PW5 and L33. Having a track
record of safe XC in club ships has the potential to change the culture and
perhaps make XC training a more formal part of our club training regimen.

How - the people who were motivated just did it. A lot of folks worked
together to make it happen. The activities were supported by the club
board, but not driven by the club board. The successes we've had also
weren't driven by the top guns in the club--they too supported the efforts,
but didn't drive them. I think that's an important part of the model--don't
look for others to do it. Touch base with the board and keep them apprised,
tap the knowledge of the top guns, but just get the people who really care
about growing XC together and do it. We've not got a momentum where it
looks like we'll keep pulling new pilots in. When the XC pilots talk about
their flights at the end of the day out on the deck, you can see a certain
look in some of the new members eyes and you know they won't be satisfied
with just learning to solo.