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How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?



 
 
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  #11  
Old August 16th 15, 01:31 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 7:25:13 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Dave,

These are fantastic ideas. I don't think anyone ran with the ideas at the SSA convention that it was presented at unfortunately.

Rather than a one class fits all, the idea of breaking classes (and perhaps tasks) down into smaller, appropriate groups seems very appealing (all the way around).

A few years ago we had some regional contests in Ionia. We generally had both FAI and a Sports class. Some really wanted the easier tasks that sports class typically offered (even some experienced pilots with 18m gliders).. Others wanted to race with the "hot shots' in FAI even thought they had older gliders (knowing they would probably end up near the bottom). We didn't really know how to handle this. We could certainly see the desire these pilots had to do what "they wanted" rather than what "we wanted!" We of course let them do what they wanted.

In sailing, lots of classes and lots of trophies works very well. Rather than having 60 boats (for example) in one class and only one winner...why not have 4 classes of various skill level and experience. In sailing it might be broken down into professional, corinthian, Women, Jr's, etc. They all race the same race course, but are scored as an overall AND in the individual classes. Trophies and recognition is of equal importance for all classes. Also little awards such as most improved, best first time attendee, capsize award (see land out award) are well liked.

In soaring, I could see a breakdown by SSA ranking. 100-90, 90-80, 80-70, etc. We could also start a beginner class. I agree (no brainer really) that all involved would have more fun and more of a chance to compete with pilots of equal skill level with more segmented classes. It would be less intimidating. More trophies, more excitement and hopefully a steady graduation thru the ranks as one improves. People enjoy recognition and to feel a sense of accomplishment. When someone gets trophy in front of a crowd, it is a great moment for them and really "set's the hook" in a good way. We should be maximizing these moments for our contests participants AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Far more than we do today.

I personally could care less if I was racing with 30 gliders or 5 of my general skills level. The truth is that we always end up racing with 3-5 gliders anyway at most contests. The 3-5 of our skill level. Interesting points DH. Thanks for sharing!

Sean

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 5:53:00 PM UTC-4, David Hirst wrote:

I think there is something that each of us could do in increasing the conversion rate of new XC and racing pilots.


In New Zealand, we're seeing the same decline as pretty much everywhere but there are a couple of programmes in place which might (just might) turn things around. Off-topic slightly, getting the kids re-engaged is about getting them to form their own gliding-and-social organisation (youthglide.org.nz) and that seems to be working quite well. I think Abby Delore gave a talk about Youthglide at the SSA conference a couple of years ago.

Back on-topic. After much head-scratching, a bunch of pilots decided that the key to retaining pilots was to get as many as possible into X Country - not denying that there's always a place for the pilots who just like to fly locally but it's the ones who go further who don't tend to drop out of the sport.

The next question was how to do get people into XC. One answer is to lower the (perceived) barriers to flying contest tasks. Most club members have access to club gliders but it's the whole mountain of "there's no way I could fly that far" that seemed to pose the biggest hurdle.

As a consequence, the Racing Committee have made a major revamp to the rules this season, to the effect that contest classes aren't so much based on "Std/15m", "Club", "18/20m" etc. but more "Beginner", "Intermediate" and "Advanced", i.e. based on pilot ability rather than glider performance. You can still fly with the big boys if you want (and get the points and prizes), but you can also turn up in a 18m glider and enter the "beginner" contest. We trialled the scheme informally last season and got a good number of new pilots to come along to contests and fly 75 - 150km tasks. Unsurprisingly, they had a blast! It'll be interesting to see the results this season.

Another thing that may help the decline is the sort of coaching programme that Australia is using for its cross-country pilots, which came out of a whole bunch of work that the Australian Institute of Sport developed, completely unrelated to gliding.

Interesting times. Watch this space.

DH


Some things I have been involved in
Mifflin "rookie" contest. Entry by reverse seeding so all the new guys get in. Then run classes every day before flying and debrief after flying. This was quite popular and hopefully will be repeated.
Rookie School- actively teaching the new folks how to fly a contest and mentoring each every day. This has had good results in terms of safety and getting folks going with good results. We also ask the top rookie to give "winner's" speech at pilots meetings.
Contest riding- most everyone in our club who wants to has gotten to fly/ride in one of our 2 seat gliders in a contest. We are seeing some of these folks become contestants. Even those that don't seem to be much more likely to start flying XC.
It may seem obvious but the more we welcome and encourage those that have an interest, the more will stay and thrive.
FWIW
UH
  #12  
Old August 16th 15, 03:34 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
MNLou
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

Another thought -

The Region 10 North contest last year had Club and Low Performance classes. (Another Tony Condon idea.)

It brought a bunch of less experienced pilots with less expensive gliders into the contest fold.

Lou

PS - Little did I know that, in my case, Low Performance applied to both the glider and the pilot

  #13  
Old August 16th 15, 03:40 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Sean Fidler
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

We should consider formalizing this and mapping it into our contest results, website etc on a standard basis.

If people know they have a chance to compete at their level and "win" a level category, they will probably be more excited to compete.

Instead of a straight linear SSA Pilot Ranking list, break it up into segments so we have several champions. The same breakdown for contest results. Overall and then by segments.

100-90 - Hot Shots
89.9-80 - Advanced
79.9-70 - Intermediate
Beginner (first 2 (3?) years since first contest?)
Jr.
Female

Jr. and Female would be ranked in up to 3 categories (overall, advanced (for example) and Jr. or Female. 3 times on the podium! 3 medals!

Instead of just one, we would have 6 ranking lists with 6 champions on the contest results page of the SSA website! We could also start some perpetual trophies for the SSA convention awards banquet (SSA) (per the annual ranking list "champions" along with the additional SSA medals for these categories at contests.

We could also do OLC individual achievement medals and club trophies at the SSA convention.

The more winners and recognition that we can produce, the better! We are leaving considerable magic (opportunity) on the table at contest by not recognizing more pilots at various skill/experience levels. People simply love having a shot at a trophy. They love being recognized. It may just keep them coming back. It may just inspire others to give it a try. Not be beat the superstars, but to win at a reasonable first step level against pilots of a similar skill level within a class. Medals, trophies, etc. are fairly inexpensive while being enormously valuable to those who receive them in front of their peers (see Tony Condon getting on the podium for the USA team bronze at the 13.5 meter World Championship today).

We have a nice, content rich SSA website...it would be easy to have a special "podium" page highlighting all these new rankings, awards and trophies. I'll bet it would be the most viewed page before too long. It would create buzz and these pilots recieving new recognition would love it!

We need to try these things! How about now for next season?

Sean
  #14  
Old August 16th 15, 03:46 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Sean Fidler
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

We should consider formalizing this and mapping it into our contest results, website etc on a standard basis.

If people know they have a chance to compete at their level and "win" a level category, they will probably be more excited to compete.

Instead of a straight linear SSA Pilot Ranking list, break it up into segments so we have several champions. The same breakdown for contest results. Overall and then by segments.

100-90 - Hot Shots
89.9-80 - Advanced
79.9-70 - Intermediate
Beginner (first 2 (3?) years since first contest?)
Jr.
Female

Jr. and Female would be ranked in up to 3 categories (overall, advanced (for example) and Jr. or Female. 3 times on the podium! 3 medals!

Instead of just one, we would have 6 ranking lists with 6 champions on the contest results page of the SSA website! We could also start some perpetual trophies for the SSA convention awards banquet.

We could also do OLC individual achievement medals and club trophies at the SSA convention.

The more winners and recognition that we can produce, the better! We are leaving considerable "magic" (opportunity) on the table at contest by not recognizing more pilots at various skill/experience levels. People simply love having a shot at a trophy. They love being recognized. It may just keep them coming back. It may just inspire others to give it a try. Not to beat the superstars, but to win at their current level against pilots of a similar skill level.

Medals, trophies, etc. are fairly inexpensive while being enormously valuable to those who receive them in front of their peers (see Tony Condon getting on the podium for the USA team bronze at the 13.5 meter World Championship today).

We have a nice, content rich SSA website...it would be easy to have a special "podium" page highlighting all these new rankings, awards and trophies. I'll bet it would be the most viewed page before too long. It would create buzz and these pilots recieving new recognition would love it!

We need to try these things! How about now for next season?

Sean
  #15  
Old August 16th 15, 04:12 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Marotta
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

Heck yes! Simply being in the air is a joy for me. If I can go XC, all
the better!

On 8/15/2015 10:29 AM, son_of_flubber wrote:
snip

Do XC pilots ever recover the joy of flying on marginal days?


--
Dan Marotta

  #16  
Old August 16th 15, 04:40 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 10:09:43 AM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
From another thread recently, thought it might be a good topic to paw around with everyone...

For me, soaring is great fun. I've been doing it consistently for about 5 years now. I've met a bunch of amazing, great, kind people and have learned a tremendous amount about the sport (light years left to go). Thru and thru, as a group, soaring pilots, their friends and family are among the nicest, smartest most interesting people I have ever met. I am attracted to this immensely.

Part of the reason I have devoted time and energy to the sport is that am truly inspired by what competition/cross country pilots are capable of doing in gliders. I am still fascinated by it and want to be a part of it. This, for me, was huge. Glider pilots are amazing pilots, PERIOD.

I probably never would have truly learned of the sport (and what it really is at the highest levels), or been so attracted to it if my dad was not involved. Having a family member with a high performance glider, flying it regularly and promoting how amazing the sport could be all the time was key.. Having access to a high performance glider and a group of local friends who could mentor me and take me out on cross country flights shortly after I got my license was the key moment. Would I have got my license if the motivation was just flying around the airport? Probably not.

Those experiences flying with the Ionio boys on short, mentored cross country's "set the hook" for me and eventually led to me buying a glider so that I could fly with everyone rather than leave my dad back at the airport whenever I was flying. Of course once I bought my first glider so I could fly with this gang regularly, the learning curve grew dramatically. The hook set deeper. And so on.

Flying clubs are important to US soaring "health" I suppose but they also seem to lack in areas. They often don't have much to offer in terms of even moderate performance gliders. They often don't promote or in some cases even allow cross country.

It seems that European clubs are more into cross country which is more challenging and more rewarding than local flight, which I think gets old after a year or so. If some inspirational figure is not actively encouraging and facilitating cross country glider flight (the whole point of the sport I think) at that key moment in a glider pilots career, I think they come to the conclusion that they have checked the box and move on.

Obviously without glider clubs more focused on taking pilots into cross country levels, one has to have the financial means to do it on their own. I dont see that as a real problem as numerous 40:1 gliders are available for the same price as a small sailboat or powerboat, which almost everybody seems to have these days (jet skis, snowmobiles, etc). It's a matter of priority. Gliders I suppose are for one person (usually) where a boat (or other rec toy) is for the whole family.

But Europe seems to have an entirely different dynamic with respect to soaring. More youth, larger numbers, etc. U.S. numbers have been steadily declining for 25 years.

One thing I learned in business school. It's often better to adopt successful competitors methods even if at first you don't fully understand them yet. Our clubs (and the SSA) should be talking to European clubs and picking their brains for advise. I wonder how many have actually done that. Perhaps take a trip to Europe on summer and spend a few weeks with a successful club, talk to the people, etc.

Oddly, my flying is at a location that actually IDs itself as IONIA NON CLUB. They don't like the politics. :-).

The rules is a small thing overall but debating the rules is an important thing in terms of competition pilots. My suggestions usually would make getting into competition soaring simpler for the new pilot. I do think our rules are too complicated, but the rule makers are all GREAT PEOPLE, working hard and want nothing but the best for our sport.

Sean
7T


We have been working on generating new cross country pilots at our club (Chicago Glider Club) over the last several years and have had some success with the following approach:

1. When new members without glider licenses join the club and seek instruction we try to introduce them to the idea of flying cross country early in the training process. My initial training flights, when the conditions permit, include taking the pilot to nearby airports, using them as turnpoints and getting the new pilot (many are already airplane rated) used to the idea that we don't just stay at the home field, and that modern gliders have the range to safely fly cross country. We have four airports within 10 miles, so its not much of a trip, but it seems to affect attitudes and expectations in a positive manner.

2. Cross-country and racing is a normal weekend activity at our club when the weather permits, so all members see that a group of us are flying cross-country regularly.

3. We have a training program focused on cross country that includes talks by experienced pilots on relevant issues, followed by practice with an experienced cross-country pilot who is usually a CFIG. We have three club two-place gliders (2 ASK-21s and a Duo Discus), so we have the equipment to do this. We have had good turnout at these events, both from new and older club members, many of whom have not been flying cross-country. After a short talk we fly 1-1/2 hour local tasks and evaluate the results. (I have found, by the way, that the biggest problem, so far, in getting people proficient to fly cross-country is thermaling ability.)

4. Apart from the cross-country flights with instructors, we have arranged for practice off-field landings at a near by RLA with a friendly owner. The pilots fly one of the two place glider to the RLA with an instructor in the backseat. They also tow out to go back to the glider club. This got a lot of interest and was appreciated by people who had never landed anywhere but at our glider club. Its a good project on days when the weather is too weak for cross-country.

5. Our club also has an ASW-24, and we encourage pilots to use it for cross-country flying.

6. We set cross-country tasks on most weekends when the weather cooperates (very few this year). If there are new cross-country pilots flying, the task options include a local MAT that won't take the pilot more than 10 miles or so from our airport, but allow visiting up to five other turnpoints. We encourage people to turn in their flight logs and we post the results, usually with comments from the pilots who flew tasks that day.

Interest has been good and several members who were not flying cross country when they started are now doing so. Mike Shakman
  #17  
Old August 16th 15, 04:43 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
son_of_flubber
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

On Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 11:12:15 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Heck yes!* Simply being in the air is a joy for me.* If I can go XC,
all the better!


On 8/15/2015 10:29 AM, son_of_flubber
wrote:


snip

Do XC pilots ever recover the joy of flying on marginal days?


I know a few XC pilots like yourself that fly on marginal days.

But I'm talking about the XC pilots that don't race and who only fly on the rare strong XC day that coincides with their days off. If it came to that, I'd probably quit.
  #18  
Old August 16th 15, 05:00 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

Can't think of a single logical reason to have a separate "female" class. What is this? 1953?
"
  #19  
Old August 16th 15, 05:10 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Marotta
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

I understand what you're saying.

Last week at Minden we took off early on a blue day in an ASH-30 mi. It
took us an hour and a half of scratching, gaining and losing, heading
out and retreating, before we finally were able to climb. After that,
things got better and we had a great day of soaring. Of course our
average speed was severely impacted by the 1.5 hours of zero mileage,
but we had a terrific time nonetheless.

I'm very fortunate to have a friend who owns such a super ship and loves
to fly as much as I do!

On 8/16/2015 9:43 AM, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 11:12:15 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Heck yes! Simply being in the air is a joy for me. If I can go XC,
all the better!


On 8/15/2015 10:29 AM, son_of_flubber
wrote:


snip

Do XC pilots ever recover the joy of flying on marginal days?

I know a few XC pilots like yourself that fly on marginal days.

But I'm talking about the XC pilots that don't race and who only fly on the rare strong XC day that coincides with their days off. If it came to that, I'd probably quit.


--
Dan Marotta

  #20  
Old August 16th 15, 05:11 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
WAVEGURU
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Default How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

How about a team to work on some media coverage? We need a team of people, familiar with how to get coverage, work on getting national coverage for our national contests and local coverage for our local events. NBC, ABC,CBS, FOX, sports channels... They've got a golf channel, why not a Soaring channel? The public needs to see how far and high high we go on maps, with interviews with the winners, and youth participants.

Boggs
 




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