SSA Booth April 4-6 at nations largest RC exhibition

Obviously, I personally think there is some real potential in the SSA being part of this event.

1) The expense to the SSA is very, very low. The SSA members in the booth are volunteering their time and travel costs. So basically this is nearly free to the SSA. If this turns out to be fruitless for the SSA from an awareness and selling FAST packages perspective, it was not a major expense to experiment with the idea.

2) The audience of this show is absolutely huge. A couple hundred thousand attendees are expected! In addition, the average attendee of this event is planning on spending some real money. $150 for an SSA FAST program voucher is a drop in the bucket compared to the money these attendee's are spending on other RC products and equipment at the show. These folks are at the show ready to buy new products. It is possible that they will be willing reprioritize some of their RC budget, in this environment, if we do a good job of helping them get excited about learning to fly real gliders and educate then on the numerous clubs and commercial operations in the region.

We will see in a week or so how this went. Lane (Sun and Fun) is trying to sell 100 fast passes I believe. We are going to try and sell as many as we can, and maybe 50 would be a good goal. Who know's, maybe we can do more than 50.

For me its a great excuse to be at the show and have alot of fun talking about flying.

Sean

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 9:42:52 PM UTC-4, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
This is a very good idea. The more exposure the better. I had no idea

that RC age group was so high. But then again the last time I checked

this hobby costs a lot of money and often ends in smashed

airplanes....so one needs a healthy reserve of cash. That might explain

part of it.



What I see for the future, however, does not bode very well for a

possible transition from RC to real soaring. Take FPV and products like

Oculus Rift for instance. The more virtual soaring simulates the 3D

experience of real flying the easier and cheaper it will become for fat

little kids to sit in their basements on beautiful sunny days with the

shades drawn in front of their humming computers and play while they

chug coke and eat potato chips. That's happening already. If Condor ever

upgrades such that the sceneries and other graphics are more realistic

then virtual soaring will take off too and make real soaring seem

quaint, expensive and dangerous to many.



Look what happened to the sport of rock climbing for instance. There was

a time when people climbed on real rocks outside someplace. Now, indoor

climbing at rock gyms has all but supplanted the real thing. Why? It's

safe, you don't get dirty, you don't have to hike to the base of rocks,

you don't have to deal with rockfall, spiders, the observers one needs

for the show off factor are right there, and...the list goes on and on.

Some of these gym climbers never climb on real rocks. Never.



But all this does not deter from your basic message. Keep up these good

initiatives and surely a few people will become interested in soaring.





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gotovkotzepkoi

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 9:42:52 PM UTC-4, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:

The more virtual soaring simulates the 3D
experience of real flying the easier and cheaper it will become for fat
little kids to sit in their basements on beautiful sunny days with the
shades drawn in front of their humming computers

Seriously. Transitioning to virtual soaring is part of my life plan for 5-15 years down the road. I aim to accumulate as much real world soaring experience as possible in the meantime, because I'm pretty sure that real world soaring experience/memories will make virtual soaring much more fun.

If Condor ever upgrades such that the sceneries and other graphics are more realistic then virtual soaring will take off too and make real soaring seem
quaint, expensive and dangerous to many.


Acknowledging and dealing with the REAL risk of fatality or injury is part of what makes soaring compelling. That factor is part of all 'mortal sports', SCUBA, Sky diving, Mountain Climbing, Skiing, Auto racing, Hunting and Target Shooting etc.. Shooting a real gun at a target is a lot more fun than shooting an air-pistol. Gambling is exciting and it is especially rewarding when skill and attentiveness mitigates the risks. To get anything close to same reward in the virtual world, you have to pretend that you can die, or plug into memories of past experiences.