Growth in soaring

On Mar 16, 3:32 pm, "Ramy" wrote:
I don't think that casinos, watercrafts or off road vehicles compete
with soaring. The decline in soaring is perfectly correlated with the
birth of hang gliding and later paragliding. I am often puzzled about
the amount of effort put into trying to recruit youth into soaring.
Our true market is the middle age and not youth. I think it is largely
a waste of efforts to try to attract youth. It is very hard to compete
with hang gliding and paragliding, which appeals much more to
youngsters who are actually interested in aviation due to their low
cost, simplicity and quick learning. I dare to assume that most
youngsters which are attracted to gliders are those who are mostly
interested in a career in aviation.
The true market is middle aged power pilots and veterans hang/para
glider pilots who are ready to expand their horizon and can afford
the cost and time involved. I don't think enough effort is given to
market our sport to this segment, especially not to the hang gliding
and paragliding world (where I came from). Just my humble opinion.

Ramy

All,

Just a few thoughts on the subject.

I too come from the Hang Gliding community and agree with Ramy's
comments. In the late 70s when I began flying HGs the average age was
approximately 22 (I was 19), when I retired from HGs seven years ago
the average age was approximately 48! It's an old and varied story in
both sports HG and Sailplanes.

I moved into the Sailplane world because "I love the act of soaring" I
have ever since the first time I observed a Hang Glider in 1977
thermal up to cloud base, turn down wind and go XC, I bought a Hang
Glider one week later. Many years later, when my body began to rebel
(numb hands, back problems) while hanging in a harness for hours at a
time it lost the allure. Now I fly Sailplanes and the passion for
soaring is stronger than ever, comfortable and cool looking cockpit,
great electronic toys and fantastic performance with unlimited soaring
possibilities. This is candy to all Hanglider pilots, if you put one
in a modern or semi-modern cockpit his eyes will light up and "bingo"
you have a hooked, life time member, read active & engaged. The
passion for soaring (remember they survived 20 or 30 years of
Hangliding) and intuitive thermalling skills these guys can bring to
your club is quite contagious, I've observed this first hand as I'm
sure many of you have too at your clubs.

It's just one piece of the story but I think we're missing the boat by
not actively tapping into this rich source of potential and prolific
Sailplane pilots whose demographics are a marketers dream for this
sport. This group is aging and perhaps won't be avaliable down the
road but if you bring them in now they will be involved the until they
reluctantly must retire from soaring.

Rick -21