Getting new members

Gliding isn't SEXY? Are you kidding me? Take the wings and tail off these things and most of them look like a sperm. Okay, that's not sexy but how in the heck is this sport going to survive if not by marketing? I agree, go out and fly, enjoy yourself, yadda yadda yadda. But without a reasonable marketing strategy there may come a day when there are few if any places to go and enjoy soaring. Where I Fly we have people drive for four and five hours to get here. I'm lucky it's 25 minutes for me. There is a club operation in the panhandle, one about two hours north of here, one about an hour south and that's about it. (Florida). Clubs have to remain viable, to do so they must attract new members and keep their planes and tugs in good condition. Commercial operations must do the same, attract new students, teach them to fly, maintain a reasonable rental fleet and provide the necessary services.

Do we have to make it sexy to market it? I think not. We have to make it exciting, attractive, appealing. Okay, that's the same as sexy but you know where I'm going. Commercial operations need to invest in the future, spend a little on local TV and newspaper ads, market, market, market, sell, sell, sell.

I will admit that I have been frustrated trying to attract a friend or two of mine to the sport. A couple are pilots, I have taken them for a ride and made it as pleasant as I could. Somehow I have come to realize that if there is not a burning passion within you, nothing is going to make you soar. All we can do is continue to try to promote the sport on our own and hope that our tugs and glider ports will remain around long enough to either begin to grow or allow those of us who fly to die happily in our sleep after a tasty day in lift.

Walt

5 years ago Dumfries & District Gliding Club had less than 10 members and
was struggling to keep flying.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of the members we have grown our
club to 50 members last year.
Imagination and links with local groups like the Air Museum have helped
enormously, A glider at the museum open day generated over 100 inquiries
and 30+ people arrived to fly during our flying week a few weeks later.
A can do attitude and a desire to share the FUN of flying, a welcoming
smile and an accommodating clubhouse culture attracts and keeps members
from 4 years of age to 78 years of age (everyone of whom has flown at some
point).
We flew 30 Girl Guide leaders as part of their centenary celebrations
(adding two members)
The Local Air Cadet group is also involved with the club and will we hope
generate junior members over the next year.

Do not get the wrong idea we do have our problems and have to work hard to
keep the culture right and the members on board but we have committed to
providing the opportunity for any and all to soar over our beautiful south
west of Scotland.
We built our club house from donated materials and the labour of our
members.
Our fleet is old, the youngest is a 1975 K13 supported by a K7 (just
refurbed by club members) and our single seaters are between 45 and 60
years old except for the chairman's LAK 17. but we can all fly to cloud
base, soar the ridge, find the thermal and hope for the wave.
Staying up for 35 minutes in minimal lift (max 0.3kts on the averager) is
a challenge and landing on our Nth/Sth strip in a westerly crosswind makes
for good pilots.
Who needs $150,000 planes or $20,000 on the panel to fly - 3 dials, a
stick and two pedals, a good pair of eyes and a sensitive seat will keep
you up for hours.
So get out there and fly, tell your friends (give them a flight for their
birthday) build relationships with schools and youth organizations and
show and tell what you do - even lawyers can be persuaded (take them up
and loop them sick if they aren't).
Life is too short to let the tyre on your glider go flat - get in the air
and take the world with you if you can.
Have a look at our club on:
http://dumfriesgliding.110mb.com/index.html
David Neilson
Dumfries & District GLiding Club

5 years ago Dumfries & District Gliding Club had less than 10 members and
was struggling to keep flying.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of the members we have grown our
club to 50 members last year.
Imagination and links with local groups like the Air Museum have helped
enormously, A glider at the museum open day generated over 100 inquiries
and 30+ people arrived to fly during our flying week a few weeks later.
A can do attitude and a desire to share the FUN of flying, a welcoming
smile and an accommodating clubhouse culture attracts and keeps members
from 4 years of age to 78 years of age (everyone of whom has flown at some
point).
We flew 30 Girl Guide leaders as part of their centenary celebrations
(adding two members)
The Local Air Cadet group is also involved with the club and will we hope
generate junior members over the next year.

Do not get the wrong idea we do have our problems and have to work hard to
keep the culture right and the members on board but we have committed to
providing the opportunity for any and all to soar over our beautiful south
west of Scotland.
We built our club house from donated materials and the labour of our
members.
Our fleet is old, the youngest is a 1975 K13 supported by a K7 (just
refurbed by club members) and our single seaters are between 45 and 60
years old except for the chairman's LAK 17. but we can all fly to cloud
base, soar the ridge, find the thermal and hope for the wave.
Staying up for 35 minutes in minimal lift (max 0.3kts on the averager) is
a challenge and landing on our Nth/Sth strip in a westerly crosswind makes
for good pilots.
Who needs $150,000 planes or $20,000 on the panel to fly - 3 dials, a
stick and two pedals, a good pair of eyes and a sensitive seat will keep
you up for hours.
So get out there and fly, tell your friends (give them a flight for their
birthday) build relationships with schools and youth organizations and
show and tell what you do - even lawyers can be persuaded (take them up
and loop them sick if they aren't).
Life is too short to let the tyre on your glider go flat - get in the air
and take the world with you if you can.
Have a look at our club on:
http://dumfriesgliding.110mb.com/index.html
David Neilson
Dumfries & District GLiding Club

Martin Eiler keeps saying that we need a celebrity glider pilot, who would
make it "cool."

Problem with that is that the celebrity most likely wants to keep such
activity private as a way to get away from the crowd.

At 00:25 09 May 2011, bildan wrote:
On May 8, 10:45=A0am, "kirk.stant" wrote:
Well, I think we need to take off our blinders and face reality.
Flying is no longer an exciting adventure; it's going through TSA
searches and being crammed into a tubular extrusion for hours without
food or entertainment. =A0Or it's UAVs whacking bad guys, controlled
from an Air Base in Nevada.

There will always be a small group of people of all ages who will
gravitate to gliding, either because they can't afford power flying,
or like to try something different, or are attracted to the
competitive aspects.

But to expect people to rush to gliding because we can make it less
expensive? =A0Won't happen. It's already about as inexpensive as
flying
can get!

And forget homebuilding - the numbers will never be very big. =A0The
SSA
isn't the EAA, unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately!).

The European model would appear to work better, judging by where all
the new gliders come from - more social aspects, bigger clubs with
better equipment (NO 2-33s!!!!), much greater emphasis on gliding as a
sport (XC, badges, OLC, racing, records) than as just twirlybirding on
a nice Saturday afternoon.

But even the euros are losing membership! So as much as I prefer their
approach to the typical US glider operation, they still have the same
problem - flying just isn't sexy any more.

So what is the answer? =A0Quit worrying about it, go out and fly, try
to
introduce someone to gliding who might actually be interested.

Kirk
66

Kirk, if they actually knew about us, I think there is a real
possibility of interesting 1 in a thousand (.1%) of the US
population. That's 300,000 new pilots. Should that happen, the
immediate problem would be we don't have the training gliders,
instructors or tow planes to handle that number. Nice problem to have
though.

On May 10, 3:49*pm, Nyal Williams wrote:
Martin Eiler keeps saying that we need a celebrity glider pilot, who would
make it "cool."

Problem with that is that the celebrity most likely wants to keep such
activity private as a way to get away from the crowd.

Here in New Zealand, the All Black (national Rugby team) captain is
well known to be a glider pilot, has taken reporters flying etc.

Doesn't seem to help a lot.

Google search "Richie McCaw gliding"

The idea about getting a celebrity to fly and making it cool is a good one. John Travolta, an accomplished pilot lives about an hour north of SLGP. Perhaps we could invite him down for a ride? His 707 would be a bit much for 3000 feet of grass but I am sure there is a single or light twin available for him to fly.

Tiger Woods spends a lot of time in Orlando. Perhaps we could invite him out..... Okay, that might not be the best idea because we don't want hookers, (or slicers) hanging around the flight line...... or do we? Hummmm. Make it sexy? With all of Tigers women hanging around it would be EXTRA SEXY. We could make them into line crew, I bet that would get the local TV stations out. I can see it now.....Tonight: Hookers at SLGP, film at Eleven.

Walt

At 03:49 10 May 2011, Nyal Williams wrote:
Martin Eiler keeps saying that we need a celebrity glider pilot, who
would
make it "cool."

Well, we used to have that here in the US. Christopher
Reeves, the movie "Superman", was a glider pilot. We
used to point to one of the instructors at Van Sant AP
and tell folks, there's the guy that taught Superman
to Fly.

Actually, it didn't seem to help all that much.

We might have thought that the remake of "The Thomas
Crown Affair" might have given us a boost in interest
(even though it was far inferior to the original with Steve
McQueen and Faye Dunaway). That didn't happen either.

I tend to believe that the people who really get the appeal
of gliding will find their way to us one way or another. I
suppose I've converted two people into glider pilots over
the years that I can bring to mind. One was a result of a
poster (from SOARING magazine) that I had on the wall
of my office. A woman walking down the hallway stopped
to ask what it was, and one thing led to another. She
eventually got the rating and owned a 1-26 for quite a
while. (But I can tell you, it ticked me off more than a bit
when she brought her boyfriend along to the airport for
her promised glider ride. What a disappointment. But she
got the glider bug nonetheless.)

Jim Beckman

On May 10, 8:15*am, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.
wrote:
The idea about getting a celebrity to fly and making it cool is a good
one. *John Travolta, an accomplished pilot lives about an hour north of
SLGP. *Perhaps we could invite him down for a ride? *His 707 would be a
bit much for 3000 feet of grass but I am sure there is a single or light
twin available for him to fly. *

Tiger Woods spends a lot of time in Orlando. *Perhaps we could invite
him out..... * Okay, that might not be the best idea because we don't
want hookers, (or slicers) hanging around the flight line...... * or do
we? * Hummmm. *Make it sexy? *With all of Tigers women hanging around it
would be EXTRA SEXY. *We could make them into line crew, I bet that
would get the local TV stations out. *I can see it now.....Tonight:
Hookers at SLGP, film at Eleven.

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

Volunteer to present a program at your local civic clubs. Last year I
did a thirty minute presentation at Rotary and last week made the same
presentation at Kiwanis. The programs went over very well. I
included slides of the civic club members who are active in soaring.
You also get a blurb in the local newspaper as a byproduct. The civic
clubs are hungry for programs and especially like something out of the
oridinary. It is great PR and you might garner a new student or two.

Lane
XF

On May 10, 8:45*am, lanebush wrote:
On May 10, 8:15*am, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.









wrote:
The idea about getting a celebrity to fly and making it cool is a good
one. *John Travolta, an accomplished pilot lives about an hour north of
SLGP. *Perhaps we could invite him down for a ride? *His 707 would be a
bit much for 3000 feet of grass but I am sure there is a single or light
twin available for him to fly. *

Tiger Woods spends a lot of time in Orlando. *Perhaps we could invite
him out..... * Okay, that might not be the best idea because we don't
want hookers, (or slicers) hanging around the flight line...... * or do
we? * Hummmm. *Make it sexy? *With all of Tigers women hanging around it
would be EXTRA SEXY. *We could make them into line crew, I bet that
would get the local TV stations out. *I can see it now.....Tonight:
Hookers at SLGP, film at Eleven.

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

Volunteer to present a program at your local civic clubs. *Last year I
did a thirty minute presentation at Rotary and last week made the same
presentation at Kiwanis. *The programs went over very well. *I
included slides of the civic club members who are active in soaring.
You also get a blurb in the local newspaper as a byproduct. *The civic
clubs are hungry for programs and especially like something out of the
oridinary. *It is great PR and you might garner a new student or two.

Lane
XF

I did a local rotary once, but when I got there found that chapter
only gave 10 minutes to speakers. That meeting was hurry to get
started, hurry through lunch, hurry to draw prizes, hurry through the
speakers, hurry to leave. Even with the free lunch it was not worth
it. My minimum is now 30 minutes, take it or leave it. But you are
right, civic clubs, EAA chapters, aviation programs and CC's and
colleges are good venues. Mall displays, not so much. We will be at
my local municipal airport on Learn to Fly Day, May 21st, 9am-4pm.

Frank Whiteley

On 5/9/2011 11:49 PM, Nyal Williams wrote:
Martin Eiler keeps saying that we need a celebrity glider pilot, who would
make it "cool."


we have one - Cliff Robertson. He even made a few DVDs

http://store.ssa.org/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=706700
http://www.natgeoeducationvideo.com/...l-wave-soaring

Doesn't seem to have helped much.

Tony "6N"