Why is Soaring declining

In his post, MJBoyd uses the American vernacular. For those readers who are
not familiar with it, "nuther balla wax" means "another ball of wax", i.e. "a
different issue". Further down in the same paragraph, "coulda" means "could
have".

Cheers, Charles :-))

Mark James Boyd writes
I really think the training required to get a license/learn to solo
soar safely is the biggest deterrent, next to airsickness.

I disagree. I think the biggest deterrent is failing to understand how
accessible the whole thing actually is. It's the effort involved in
getting onto the airfield and getting involved in the first place that's
the problem.

Golfers, swimmers, etc. can enjoy their sport to some extent even if
they do it at a very novice level. I can get someone sailing a dinghy
enough to not die in about a weekend. Not a chance of soloing a
sailplane in a weekend if you've never flown anything before.

But that's overlooking the fact that going "solo" is not the whole point
of gliding. Flying is, and you do that from the moment you start to
learn. So you have an instructor in the back for the first 50-100
launches? Doesn't matter. For the most part most of them are good
company :P

60 launches in my own logbook so far, since last October, and I'm not
solo yet. Sure, I'd like to get there, and more so now that the
possibility is actually in sight. But it isn't exactly a huge source of
frustration to me. I really am enjoying "the training required to ...
solo safely". I know it's a cliché, but it really is as much about the
journey as it is about the destination in this case.

--
Bill Gribble

/---------------------------------------\
| http://www.cotswoldgliding.co.uk |
| http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk |
\---------------------------------------/

Bill Gribble wrote:

I disagree. I think the biggest deterrent is failing to understand how
accessible the whole thing actually is. It's the effort involved in
getting onto the airfield and getting involved in the first place that's
the problem.

This is also a factor. Imagine my surprise when I found out
I could go race on the dirt track nearby in a car for a few dollars too!
Same idea. (Good) Publicity is sometimes hard to come by...
Someone else posted how it takes a lot of courage to go into
an FBO and ask for lessons. I was struck by how true this is.


Golfers, swimmers, etc. can enjoy their sport to some extent even if
they do it at a very novice level. I can get someone sailing a dinghy
enough to not die in about a weekend. Not a chance of soloing a
sailplane in a weekend if you've never flown anything before.

But that's overlooking the fact that going "solo" is not the whole point
of gliding. Flying is, and you do that from the moment you start to
learn. So you have an instructor in the back for the first 50-100
launches? Doesn't matter. For the most part most of them are good
company :P

Yep, but $$$$s is $$$$s. Poor people find a lake and dog paddle for a
long long time. In flying I get some customers because my goal
is to teach them how to train themselves. Helps save money,
but even this has it's limits.


60 launches in my own logbook so far, since last October, and I'm not
solo yet. Sure, I'd like to get there, and more so now that the
possibility is actually in sight. But it isn't exactly a huge source of
frustration to me. I really am enjoying "the training required to ...
solo safely". I know it's a cliché, but it really is as much about the
journey as it is about the destination in this case.

Great. Well I hope the plain ol' soaring part won't
be too boring for you
--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

While growth in soaring is a world wide problem, what follows is a USA
centric viewpoint. First, believe growth can be accomplished. There is
so much negative talk about growing the sport, so many splintered
ideas that it seems like making a real difference in the trend can
only be done by magic. Its also safe to say what we are doing now is
not making a big long term difference in the members trend line.

Any marketing person worth their salt can come up with 50-100 easy,
affordable and effective ways to grow soaring. The biggest obstacle to
growing the sport is that there is no one with the background needed
responsible on a day-to-day basis for this activity in the USA - with
a budget to get things done. Volunteers can't do the job, it has to be
a paid activity as it requires much more focus and longevity than what
can be expected out of a volunteer effort. No budget means no real
action.

Growth in soaring happens at the local FBO and Club level. A simple
pull strategy is what is needed. With pull marketing the objective is
to pull "customers" into the established retail selling points. The
sport already has a great "product", and established "retailers" in
the form of clubs and commercial operators, but no focused long-term
strategy to pull the right customers into these retail centers.

Step one is to form a triad between the clubs, commercial operators
and the promotion team around the idea that Promotion will be
developing opportunities to pull customers into their retail
locations. It is critical to separate the thrill a minute ride
customer that you never see again from the "want to learn to soar"
customer. Its also critical that once the customers show at the
retailer they get a warm reception. Develop several "entry" points
that are inviting to potential members. For example, a First Flight
Certificate printable off the SSA Web Site redeemable at any
participating club or FBO. A targeted direct mail campaign to target
demo and psychographics within x miles of participating retailers, a
1-800 number that can answer customer questions and direct them to
their nearest retailer, a First Flight Kit that can be sent to
prospects, cooperative marketing with other aviation organizations
like AOPA and EAA, an First Flight invitation letter to every retiring
airline pilot, First Flight coupons in magazines and Sporty's, a First
Flight video with 800 number and web address shown before targeted
movies, promotion of the sport in film, print and web featuring First
Flight information... you get the idea. Develop and refine a pull
program, work it for a couple of years and see what happens. A final
note, while many think youth is the future of our sport I think that
35-55 year olds with time, money and interest are the future of our
sport.

How to pay for this strategy is a good topic for RAS.

John Seaborn


"f.blair" wrote in message news:IYSec.28503$_K3.73177@attbi_s53...
This was copied from rec.outdoors.fishing.bass. It sounds like the very
same things that we talk about when we discuss the decline of our sport. I
am not saying it has answers, but it is interesting.
Fred


************************************************** **************************
***************************
Great read Bob.
Fishing license sales are declining which indicates a real decline in
fishing interest, i.e. less numbers of people are fishing. I suspect that
things are worse since our population is growing, the proportion of people
fishing is declining more rapidly than indicated by license sales decline.
Why is this so? A variety of possible reasons come to mind when combined,
could explain the decline..

1. Fishable water is being privatized - bought up, posted, acquired by
governmental agencies, restricted by land use rulings, dams being removed,
access fenced off, etc.
2. Competing demands for time - Soccer, GameBoy, offroading, skateboarding,
partying, RVing, home projects and a multitude of other in and outdoor
activities divert participation today from family and individual fishing.
3. Decline of the nuclear family - as divorce and separation disrupts
parent/child relationships, fishing is less of a priority on weekends or
other custody times.
4. Availability of more disposal income - Food needs drove fishing more in
the past than today.
5. Immigration - Illegal aliens cannot get fishing licenses and legal
immigrants probably have far less interest in fishing than other population
demographics..
6. Adversarial animal rightists - Are influencing the weak, timid and
non-iinterested into a non-fishing mentality.
7 Adversarial vegaterians - Translate their anti meat-pholosophy into a
non-fishing mentality.
8. Passing fad - The Yuppie infatuation with fly-fishng in the 1980's has
past us by.
9. No new rivers - God is not making any new rivers and environmentalists
and politicians are fighting adding dams and impoundments which limits new
water bodies with their rapid growth and abundance of fish in their early
years.
10.Waterbody management - Is NOT being managed to increase the number of
people fishng, but to reduce, constrict, limit and to conserve existing or
lower levels of people. Budget level maintenance is their primary goal.
Little funding exists for meaningful additional researh to stop decline in
fishing.
11. Fly in fishing is up - Since the demand for trophy and quality fishing
exceeds the supply of domestic US fishing, more people are not fishing
locally but flying out to exotic places around the world.
12. On water competition - Water skiers, kyakers, personal flotation
devicers, canoeists, hikers and many other types of on-the-water or
near-the-water people are degrading the solitiude many fishermen cherish and
running them off the water.

Bob, I'm sure there are other things which MAY contribute to the decline,
but these are suggestions for starters. You listed a number of things we
can do to slow the decline of fishing. They'll help. But I am convinced
fishing will continue to decline. I just hope there will be some quality
experiences left for my grandsons but I doubt it.

Good luck!
John

Good post. I hope it doesn't get buried beneath the hundreds of
Lennie-related bloviations in this thread.

(John Seaborn) wrote in message . com...
While growth in soaring is a world wide problem, what follows is a USA
centric viewpoint. First, believe growth can be accomplished. There is
so much negative talk about growing the sport, so many splintered
ideas that it seems like making a real difference in the trend can
only be done by magic. Its also safe to say what we are doing now is
not making a big long term difference in the members trend line.

Any marketing person worth their salt can come up with 50-100 easy,
affordable and effective ways to grow soaring. The biggest obstacle to
growing the sport is that there is no one with the background needed
responsible on a day-to-day basis for this activity in the USA - with
a budget to get things done. Volunteers can't do the job, it has to be
a paid activity as it requires much more focus and longevity than what
can be expected out of a volunteer effort. No budget means no real
action.

Growth in soaring happens at the local FBO and Club level. A simple
pull strategy is what is needed. With pull marketing the objective is
to pull "customers" into the established retail selling points. The
sport already has a great "product", and established "retailers" in
the form of clubs and commercial operators, but no focused long-term
strategy to pull the right customers into these retail centers.

Step one is to form a triad between the clubs, commercial operators
and the promotion team around the idea that Promotion will be
developing opportunities to pull customers into their retail
locations. It is critical to separate the thrill a minute ride
customer that you never see again from the "want to learn to soar"
customer. Its also critical that once the customers show at the
retailer they get a warm reception. Develop several "entry" points
that are inviting to potential members. For example, a First Flight
Certificate printable off the SSA Web Site redeemable at any
participating club or FBO. A targeted direct mail campaign to target
demo and psychographics within x miles of participating retailers, a
1-800 number that can answer customer questions and direct them to
their nearest retailer, a First Flight Kit that can be sent to
prospects, cooperative marketing with other aviation organizations
like AOPA and EAA, an First Flight invitation letter to every retiring
airline pilot, First Flight coupons in magazines and Sporty's, a First
Flight video with 800 number and web address shown before targeted
movies, promotion of the sport in film, print and web featuring First
Flight information... you get the idea. Develop and refine a pull
program, work it for a couple of years and see what happens. A final
note, while many think youth is the future of our sport I think that
35-55 year olds with time, money and interest are the future of our
sport.

How to pay for this strategy is a good topic for RAS.

John Seaborn

"Liam Finley" wrote in message
om...
Good post. I hope it doesn't get buried beneath the hundreds of
Lennie-related bloviations in this thread.

(John Seaborn) wrote in message
. com...
While growth in soaring is a world wide problem, what follows is a USA
centric viewpoint. First, believe growth can be accomplished. There is
so much negative talk about growing the sport, so many splintered
ideas that it seems like making a real difference in the trend can
only be done by magic. Its also safe to say what we are doing now is
not making a big long term difference in the members trend line.

Any marketing person worth their salt can come up with 50-100 easy,
affordable and effective ways to grow soaring. The biggest obstacle to
growing the sport is that there is no one with the background needed
responsible on a day-to-day basis for this activity in the USA - with
a budget to get things done. Volunteers can't do the job, it has to be
a paid activity as it requires much more focus and longevity than what
can be expected out of a volunteer effort. No budget means no real
action.

Growth in soaring happens at the local FBO and Club level. A simple
pull strategy is what is needed. With pull marketing the objective is
to pull "customers" into the established retail selling points. The
sport already has a great "product", and established "retailers" in
the form of clubs and commercial operators, but no focused long-term
strategy to pull the right customers into these retail centers.

Step one is to form a triad between the clubs, commercial operators
and the promotion team around the idea that Promotion will be
developing opportunities to pull customers into their retail
locations. It is critical to separate the thrill a minute ride
customer that you never see again from the "want to learn to soar"
customer. Its also critical that once the customers show at the
retailer they get a warm reception. Develop several "entry" points
that are inviting to potential members. For example, a First Flight
Certificate printable off the SSA Web Site redeemable at any
participating club or FBO. A targeted direct mail campaign to target
demo and psychographics within x miles of participating retailers, a
1-800 number that can answer customer questions and direct them to
their nearest retailer, a First Flight Kit that can be sent to
prospects, cooperative marketing with other aviation organizations
like AOPA and EAA, an First Flight invitation letter to every retiring
airline pilot, First Flight coupons in magazines and Sporty's, a First
Flight video with 800 number and web address shown before targeted
movies, promotion of the sport in film, print and web featuring First
Flight information... you get the idea. Develop and refine a pull
program, work it for a couple of years and see what happens. A final
note, while many think youth is the future of our sport I think that
35-55 year olds with time, money and interest are the future of our
sport.

How to pay for this strategy is a good topic for RAS.

John Seaborn


Step one for funding. Deny the dues rebate to any SSA chapter that doesn't
meet a growth quota. Clubs with a stated "no-growth" or "limited
membership" policy don't even get to ask for a rebate. The funds thus
retained go to marketing.

Step two. Add a check box to the individual SSA membership renewal form
that contributes $5 of the annual membership fee to marketing soaring.

Step three. Ask (or require) business members to contribute $200 (or more)
to the marketing fund.

Step four. Reward individual SSA members who, during the preceding year,
are responsible for 10 new members by waiving their membership renewal fee.
Add a space on the SSA application form for the name of the SSA member who
recruited the new member. List the names of these "Star Recruiters" in
Soaring and ask the business members to offer them a discount on
merchandise, tows etc...

Step five. Create a reward for the most productive recruiter of the year to
be presented at the SSA convention.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels wrote:

Step one for funding. Deny the dues rebate to any SSA chapter that doesn't
meet a growth quota. Clubs with a stated "no-growth" or "limited
membership" policy don't even get to ask for a rebate. The funds thus
retained go to marketing.

Step two. Add a check box to the individual SSA membership renewal form
that contributes $5 of the annual membership fee to marketing soaring.

Step three. Ask (or require) business members to contribute $200 (or more)
to the marketing fund.

Step four. Reward individual SSA members who, during the preceding year,
are responsible for 10 new members by waiving their membership renewal fee.

I wouldn't even set the bar that high: 5 new members would be quite an
achievement. Make it 3 members to get half off the dues.

Add a space on the SSA application form for the name of the SSA member who
recruited the new member. List the names of these "Star Recruiters" in
Soaring and ask the business members to offer them a discount on
merchandise, tows etc...


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

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

At 14:42 27 April 2004, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Michael wrote:
Eric Greenwell wrote

Think for a moment. If you're checking yourself out
in a glider,
you're going to do some stalls in it, right? And
they're going to be
true approach-to-landing stalls - starting with a
stabilized descent
at pattern speed, with a speed reduction to mimic
the flare. Gives
you plenty of time to feel what the glider is going
to do.

Suppose we didn't teach stalls that way. Suppose
we taught them as a
performance maneuver, where the goal was to get the
nose high, get a
clean break, and minimize altitude loss at recovery.
Would the
student still be prepared to figure out the landing
characteristics of
the plane?

If we taught them this way, we would be doing the student
a disservice,
even if they never flew any other glider. It's widely
understood that
you have to teach turning stalls, as these are the
most likely way a
pilot will encounter a spin or spiral dive.


They must be taught BOTH ways!



Apparently, I'm still missing the point: why is a 1-26
or ka-8 far better for soaring flight?

These are good reasons to have a glider that is easier
to retrieve from
a field, but aren't related to the soaring or cross-country
ability of
the glider.

As a general rule, it makes sense to consider the practicality
of de-rigging in a plowed field, because one day you
will have to do it. I've learned the hard way that
X/C flying is more than just flying X/C. Modern, easy
to load and unload trailers make X/C flight much less
painless than the old trailers of twenty years ago.
Two hours of rigging and de-rigging is much more discouraging
than twenty to thirty minutes on either end of a flight.
An excellent trailer might just be be most important
factor in encouraging frequent X/C flying.

Nyal Williams wrote:

As a general rule, it makes sense to consider the practicality
of de-rigging in a plowed field, because one day you
will have to do it. I've learned the hard way that
X/C flying is more than just flying X/C. Modern, easy
to load and unload trailers make X/C flight much less
painless than the old trailers of twenty years ago.
Two hours of rigging and de-rigging is much more discouraging
than twenty to thirty minutes on either end of a flight.
An excellent trailer might just be be most important
factor in encouraging frequent X/C flying.

And an eager driver looking for some adventure!

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

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

At 15:12 07 May 2004, Gill Couto wrote:
Liam Finley wrote:
Better to recruit one good pilot than ten Lennies
who wash out and
then spend the rest of their lives whining about it.

These are the days of safe web browsing. Reading about
it and
viewing photos on the web is very enjoyable itself,
why bother
learning to fly? Food 4 thought.

gill
www.gillcouto.com

Gill, you could say the same thing about food and sex.
Those are both dangerous.