The decline of gliding - a worldwide issue?

On Friday, March 26, 2021 at 1:27:47 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
Speaking as an 'average Joe' who was never cut out to be an elite glider pilot, a person who have flown consistently for a decade .... The club system is an anachronism that works best when there is a super-abundance of people who are eager to become pilots. The system advances the people who turn out to be the best pilots. At the same time it discourages weaker candidates, and so to speak, diverts them to the 'infantry' (or in the present day, to some less challenging hobby). This system worked fine in gliding's golden ages.

In the present day, fewer people want to become pilots, so we need a system that advances people who have less talent, less discretionary time, less motivation, and in many cases less ability to learn quickly (a common trait of the 50-60 y.o. students who now have time/money/motivation to do gliding without the distractions of family-starting and career-building for the next 20 years). I mean... going a week or two between flight lessons (and other impediments at clubs) make it hard for the average Joe/Jane to progress. Try to do that for a year or two, get frustrated, quit, and lose your entire investment of time and money without achieving your goal (that almost happened to me!). These less gifted pilots become contributing/sustaining club members once they get over the hurdle of initial training.

I recommend only two paths for the average Joe/Jane to be come a glider pilot:

1)Take a 'gliding vacation', a week or so of concentrated training at a commercial operation, follow up with training at the local club. Take a second/third gliding vacation as needed. Possibly finish your rating at a commercial operation. Then fly more dual and learn to soar.

2)Learn to fly power plane first. In USA, do glider add-on rating at a commercial flight school. Follow on with lots of dual flights at local gliding club to learn how to soar.

These options are not so expensive because the student has a better chance of achieving their goal, and the cost might be about the same as traditional club training, if it takes fewer flights over fewer months. A student who quits club training pays the highest price.

I strongly recommend gliding club-based training to young people who have the opportunity to join a viable youth program at a club where they can train along side other people their age. A few exceptions (above-average Joe/Jane) will find their way through the club training gauntlet without my encouragement. Others will stumble into the maw of glider club training, get frustrated, quit, tell their friends, and end up forever lost to gliding. Too bad, but I did not send them down that path.

Some clubs have 'training camps', that provide concentrated training over a week, similar to what one can do at a commercial operation. That seems like a good idea. In some places, these camps are for students with no prior experience.
We need to stop lying to kids and telling them there will be plenty of time to chase rainbows after the corporate world has discarded them. And we need to start telling them if they want to be good at something they'd best learn it while their brains are still pliable fresh sponges. Of course as a society we won't, cause that would be bad for the bottom line. Now all you lurking potential glider pilots get back to work, your crushing student loans are not going to repay themselves. Of course borrowing money is something else we need to stop telling people to do. But we won't.
Gliding participation is downstream from culture. If the culture is broken gliding will never be robust.