Why is Soaring declining

Ian Johnston writes
I think there is another fundamental problem he learning to glide
(in the UK, anyway) just isn't much fun. Typically it involves
standing round an airfield all day, hoping that an instructor whom
you've never met before will deign to give you a couple of circuits
and filling in the rest of your time acting as ground crew for the
private owners who seem incapable of driving tractors or hooking up
cables.

In part, perhaps I can see why you might say that (here in the UK,
anyway). But speaking from personal experience, learning to glide has so
far cost me a day per weekend (or half a day when other commitments have
encroached) since last October, and when I do go solo (odds are that
might be sometime in the next month or so at my current rate of
progress) the sum total financial cost will have been £470, to the penny
as long as you exclude the additional cash I've also spent on various
gliding books to tide me over on rainy days.

Compare that to the $7000 financial cost and clear personal trauma
Lennie the Lurker has apparently suffered over on the other side of the
Atlantic in trying to achieve the same, along with the terribly bitter
state that the experience has obviously left him in, and I'd have to say
that we have a terrific deal here in the UK and so must be doing
something right.

As for whether it's fun as well as economical... I suppose I've spent a
good part of this last British winter crawling out of bed at the crack
of dawn when my natural habit would otherwise be to continue sleeping
off the previous night's excesses, and then shivering on a cold, damp
and utterly unsheltered airfield whilst intermittently manning the
lights, retrieving the cables and manhandling the club's K13's whilst
waiting for my chance to fly in one.

On the other hand, that time has been in the warm company of a small
number of similar enthusiasts and other stalwarts still gripped enough
by this flying thing to want to do the same in preference to spending
the winter warm and snug at home. Not to mention the instructors that
have turned up week after week to give their time freely in order to
teach us how to do this flying thing safely... And their enthusiasm is,
absolutely without exception, utterly infectious.

For the first couple of months that did mean that each week was
inevitably with an instructor I'd never met before and the flying
through the winter, of course, did consist mainly of launch, circuit,
land. On the other hand, the typical day gave me up to six launches to
1600' plus (if I could give the whole day to the thing - otherwise it
would be half a day and three launches) so the value was somewhat more
than "a couple of circuits" :P

And after the first couple of months I'd worked my way through most of
the instructors on the rota, so they ceased being strangers quickly
enough. As for the others at the launch point, across the winter they
tend to be a smallish, select group, the same faces week on week more or
less, and so they ceased to be strangers by week two or three.

Worst of all, that's how many of the old farts / committee members /
instructors want it to be, because that's how it was in their day.
Well, maybe it was, but suffering doesn't broaden the soul
particularly and there are many, many other hobbies which don't
involve a year or two of being bored and patronized in the learning.

Gliding clubs in the UK have absolutely no problem in attracting new
people into the sport. They are absolutely lousy at retaining them.

I can honestly say in the last six months I really haven't spent much
time bored. Just being around aircraft has been enough of a novelty for
me to prevent that, and it isn't as if there isn't plenty to do whilst
not flying. I've been antagonised a couple of times, and patronised
maybe twice. But in the broad spectrum of the last six months' worth of
experience, these occasions have been real exceptions. And in any broad
enough group of people you will always get these exceptions. In my
experience it doesn't matter whether you're talking about gliding,
fishing, or amateur dramatics. It's the cost of interacting with people.
But at 5'8 and 140lbs (including parachute), I'm big enough and ugly
enough to deal with such provocation on my own terms :P

I'd say that soaring is, like many things, something you are either
going to take to or you won't. On the other hand, it is the sort of
experience that many will want to try, if given the chance. And of them,
some, albeit a small minority, will bite.

In this, the cheap trial lesson is your friend. In today's terms, £25 is
the sort of change I have in my back pocket that I might spend down the
pub on a Saturday night without thinking about it. Giving me three
flights instead of one for £50 might seem like a good deal, but that
brings it to the sort of expenditure level that I have to clear through
my wife

Aside from that, you have to make the opportunity known, and your
obvious target audience is your local community. To put that into
context, I live within about 10 miles of two gliding clubs. But it's
taken me 15 years to realise just how accessible gliding really is, and
in the end this epiphany of realisation came in the form of a £70 trial
lesson voucher brought in the basement of Debenhams as a Chrismas
present from my wife that had me travelling to Wales to redeem
(Talgarth, to be precise - a lovely place that I sincerely plan to
re-visit one of these days).

It strikes me therefore as unsurprising that this journey has taken 15
years, and I figure it was only luck that meant it didn't take another
15.

So I'd say that if you're really concerned with declining numbers, make
cheap "trial lessons" easily available, convenient and accessible, and
when the punters turn up at the airfield, make sure they're looked after
and made to feel welcome and involved for the **duration of the time**
they are actually at the field, and not just whilst they're under the
care of their actual instructor, strapped into the front seat of a
glider.

Anyway, I appreciate that much of what I have to say on this matter
could be both construed as the naive opinion of a newbie and deemed
terribly parochial, in that it relates to my own experiences so far in
the UK which I understand to be very different from somebody learning to
glide elsewhere in the world, stateside especially.

On the other hand, the subject is in part about attracting newcomers to
soaring, of which I am quite recently one myself. And maybe my own
experiences in this (which are, by and by, entirely positive now that
I'm actually here) might make an interesting point of comparison to any
other points of view or experiences found here.



--
Bill Gribble

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| http://www.cotswoldgliding.co.uk |
| http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk |
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Tony Verhulst wrote in message ...
I was very dissapointed with an article in the latest _Soaring_
magazine. It was about the SSA membership decline and all about
attracting SSA *members* and retaining SSA *members* - nothing about
soaring. I humbly suggest that if the SSA focused more on promoting
soaring, much of the membership decline would be taken care of.

Tony V.


Guess we all read things differently.
My read is that we all need to introduce folks we know to the sport.
In doing so, we have 12000 or so direct sales people.
This will result in growing the sport, and helping to grow the society.

Take a friend soaring- try direct marketing.
UH

I knew it was too good to last. From feast to famine, he's back to his old
routine again.


Me and that rodent from krautland are never going to have a good word
for each other. I couldn't ask for a more perfect example of an
elitist, arrogant fathead than finley.

Whatever. It was a poor post. Our participation in soaring does not make
the world a better place - agreed. But, soaring is not all we do and
many (most) of us are assets to our community.

Soaring has left you bitter and that's unfortunate. Next to my wife,
soaring was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Tony V.

Liam Finley wrote:

snip

I think the elitism problem is largely an urban myth.

It's all too easy for unsuccesful pilots to blame elitism rather than
take a hard look at their own lack of skill, ability or perserverence.

Stop! There it is-
"Skill, ability, and perseverance."
This is supposed to be a fun recreational activity/hobby/sport, yet it
requires "skill, ability, and perseverance".
That's a lot to ask. That sounds more like the military or marriage
than a fun recreational activity. Any sport or hobby will benefit from
skill, ability, and perseverance, but ours demands it as an entry fee.
Don't get me wrong, I think that's OK. A lot of people looking for long
term reward in a new activity may seek out such demands rather than "Buy
a bigger, better X, Y or Z. Have more fun!" or "more megapixels makes
you a better photographer". We could promote that. "Soaring is more
than a trip to the mall" or whatever.
This sort of demand takes physical and emotional energy. If that's an
expectation when you begin in soaring, you'll be better prepared.
Someone in another post noted that the BGA (IIRC) is great at getting
new members but terrible at keeping them. Part of that is certainly
skill, ability, and perseverance. If people know this is part of the
package up front, or have been lured in because of it, retention of
those new members will increase.
I having these qualities is elitism, well that can be used to our
benefit too.

Shawn

Owain Walters wrote in message ...

your last post - Sorry your last flight wasnt that
good.

IT was exactly as I had intended it to be, to hold the turns in each
direction without having my airspeed all over the map. (Which, for
some unknown reason I had developed a problem with.) No other reason.
However, I seem to remember mentioning it here, and being ripped for
the short time. (On a winter day, late in the afternoon, wind coming
off Lake Michigan. Ummmm, yeah.) It doesn't matter now, it's been
long enough that if I was to start over, it would have to be from
square one, and the problem of the big mouths would still be there,
maybe the faces would change, but nothing else would. It's alright,
I've made my trip there for the year, no reason to go there again.
Doesn't matter one way or another.

Another target market, which I do not believe is being exploited / sollicited
are skiers. Come April /May (at least in Southern California) the local ski
slopes are closed. In the Sierras, Mammoth might still be operating but only
until early July, and it is 6 to 7 hours away. Besides, at $50 or so for a
lift ticket per day, soaring might still be as "affordable" as skiing, once the
investment for lessons is absorbed.

How does one connect with the skiers ?

Cheers, Charles

"Shawn Curry" wrote in message
news:GVSfc.153187$K91.403198@attbi_s02...
Liam Finley wrote:

snip

I think the elitism problem is largely an urban myth.

It's all too easy for unsuccesful pilots to blame elitism rather than
take a hard look at their own lack of skill, ability or perserverence.

Stop! There it is-
"Skill, ability, and perseverance."
This is supposed to be a fun recreational activity/hobby/sport, yet it
requires "skill, ability, and perseverance".
That's a lot to ask. That sounds more like the military or marriage
than a fun recreational activity. Any sport or hobby will benefit from
skill, ability, and perseverance, but ours demands it as an entry fee.
Don't get me wrong, I think that's OK. A lot of people looking for long
term reward in a new activity may seek out such demands rather than "Buy
a bigger, better X, Y or Z. Have more fun!" or "more megapixels makes
you a better photographer". We could promote that. "Soaring is more
than a trip to the mall" or whatever.
This sort of demand takes physical and emotional energy. If that's an
expectation when you begin in soaring, you'll be better prepared.
Someone in another post noted that the BGA (IIRC) is great at getting
new members but terrible at keeping them. Part of that is certainly
skill, ability, and perseverance. If people know this is part of the
package up front, or have been lured in because of it, retention of
those new members will increase.
I having these qualities is elitism, well that can be used to our
benefit too.

Shawn

I was once asked by a group of associates how hard it was to learn to land
an airplane. I thought a moment as I framed an answer that would make sense
to these non-pilots - perhaps even encourage them to try it.

Finally, thinking I had a good analogy, I said, "It's about as hard as
parallel parking a car." Disappointment flashed across their faces. "Oh",
they said as a group, "that's pretty hard". They wandered away with their
interest in aviation extinguished.

I can only reflect that aviation as a whole dodged several bullets that
morning. From time to time aviation has caught the public fancy and the
result has always been a flood of fatal accidents and higher costs for the
rest of us as a liability costs soared for anyone connected with aviation.

Soaring does take "skill, ability, and perseverance." as well as other rare
traits. Maybe that makes it "elitist" - if so, so be it. Maybe we should
take a cue from the US Marine Corp Recruiters and look for a "Few Good Men
and Women". Soaring will never be "everymans" hobby.

Bill Daniels

Martin Gregorie wrote in message . ..

Sadly, these days (in the UK anyway) it seems that accusations of
elitism often get applied to anything that can't be mastered instantly
and doesn't involve chasing a ball. Gliding is obviously elitist just
because becoming a soaring pilot takes time and involves learning a
number of new skills.

No, the elitism is more often in casual remarks, ("Why anyone would
want to fly that POS is beyond me."), snide little derogatory remarks
towards any that can't or won't spend themselves into bankruptcy for
the sake of maintaining an image. "You'll never (insert favorite
action here) if you keep flying (Insert favorite target aircraft
here)". What part of "This is as much as I'm willing to spend" do you
have a problem understanding? "You will soon get tired of it and want
something better." I'm tired of my 13 year old Chevy truck and would
like a Dodge Viper, too. But it ain't gonna happen. Or as the one
fellow that I still talk with told me, when they're leaning on their
trailers with the glass still inside, laughing up their sleeves
because he's going up in the 2-33, they're still standing on the
ground watching him fly. "I wouldn't waste my time flying (Insert
name here)." (Then stand there and watch everyone else fly.)
"Conditions aren't good enough today." (Great, that means your hour in
the rental is open for someone else.)

Evidently your stomach for elitism and generalized stupidity is
greater than mine.

We had that idea back around 1990. My Club (Booker,
UK) took a stand at the London Ski Show, with a view
to selling trial lessons, introductory courses or just
creat an interest in Gliding/Soaring. We had video,
posters etc on a stand that was manned the whole time.
The show was very well attended and we talked to a
lot of people, but only sold a two or three of trial
lessons in (I think) three days. There was no detectable
long term feedback either.

At 16:30 16 April 2004, Vorsanger1 wrote:
Another target market, which I do not believe is being
exploited / sollicited
are skiers. Come April /May (at least in Southern
California) the local ski
slopes are closed. In the Sierras, Mammoth might still
be operating but only
until early July, and it is 6 to 7 hours away. Besides,
at $50 or so for a
lift ticket per day, soaring might still be as 'affordable'
as skiing, once the
investment for lessons is absorbed.

How does one connect with the skiers ?

Cheers, Charles

Great Idea but needs modification...

Set up at major college spring break area...offer cheap and/or free food and
beer for students AFTER the flight...

Youll have PLENTY of ride takers then

take care

Blll

PS...im only half joking about this....