USHGA vision

I believe that that HGers make up just over 50% of the USHGA
membership, roughly 6,000+ pilots.

In their heyday, wasn't membership 10,000?

Hello from a "quad-wingual" pilot:
In the USHGA, "biwingual" (pronounced like bilingual) means flying
both HG and PG. I fly (mostly) sailplane and also single engine,
besides having (currently under-utilised) ratings in HG and PG. Also a
member of GFA (Gliding Federation of Australia) who's magazine is
shared by HGFA (guess). A great concept, since it's all the same thing.
FYI, here are some statistics from the USHGA website. New ratings for
the last three years in the USHGA are listed below. These could be
add-on ratings. I would like to believe there is that much activity in
soaring, but think not. See earlier postings about unused "collected"
glider ratings.
Jim

2005/12 17
2005/11 94
2005/10 178
2005/9 232
2005/8 252
2005/7 226
2005/6 211
2005/5 214
2005/4 161
2005/3 171
2005/2 92
2005/1 68
2004/12 107
2004/11 136
2004/10 229
2004/9 208
2004/8 312
2004/7 243
2004/6 281
2004/5 260
2004/4 173
2004/3 129
2004/2 89
2004/1 121
2003/12 95
2003/11 107
2003/10 225
2003/9 319
2003/8 300
2003/7 306
2003/6 240
2003/5 273
2003/4 186
2003/3 155
2003/2 126
2003/1 123
2002/12 49

For those who know nothing about the USHGA proficiency ratings,
progression is more gradual than in the FAA licensing procedure so
these numbers include upgrades from H1-H2, H2-H3, H3-H4 and I
asssume includes PG as well as HG. The "entry" level ratings are
typically around 1/3 of the total sum in a month. Note that the
yearly sums decrease with time: 2003=2,455 2004=2,288 2005=1,916 (2005
may not be complete yet, but Dec is a slow month anyway).

If you look at the membership, then yes, there are about the same number of
members in USHGA and SSA. But, being around both sailplanes and HG/PG, I can
tell you there are way more HG and especially PG pilots flying in any given
day then sailplanes, at least in region 11. There are more hang gliding
sites then gliderports, and in each site you will typically see at least 10
pilots on any given weekend day. I rarely see more then 10 pilots (not
counting students and rides) in any gliderport on any weekend, and I fly in
most gliderports in region 11. Just like statistics, membership numbers
don't tell the whole story...

Ramy


"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...
Francisco De Almeida wrote:
Eric Greenwell wrote:


[snip] Remember how sailplane pilots used imagine hang gliding did=20
so well compared to sailplanes was because it was a much cheaper sport =

(...).

It seems that the cost in any amateur sport or hobby tends to increase =
to a limit defined by the average available income in the specific =
country/society. Therefore, serious participation may involve comparable
=
levels of committment and expense, be it in models gliders, =
hang-gliding, sailplanes (or target shooting, potholing, scuba diving, =
alpinism, whatever...)

Notwithstanding, the barriers to entry are lower in HG and PG than in =
soaring.

And yet, at least in the USA, they have the same number of members in
their national organizations. I expected there would be a lot more HG/PG
members. Perhaps (again, in the USA) the barriers for HG/PG aren't as low
as we imagine. Maybes some sailplane pilots that also hang-glider pilots
can inform us of the realities.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA