Latest statistics on our numbers

(Chris OCallaghan) wrote in message . com...
Our ability to stay aloft is predicated
entirely on pilot skill, and while some may compare it to sailing, at
least a sailboat stays afloat if the wind quits!

I agree, with one possible exception: Ocean voyaging. I sailed a 31
footer from New Orleans to West Africa once, and the whole passage was
one vast crash course in ocean survival. I don't think I studied so
hard since university days, with the added caviat that every course
flunked was attached to a direct physical penalty. Then I started
soaring, and the learning curve was much the same : vast amounts of
information to cram into an addled brain -- most of it survival
related. The difference was that decisions had to be made in split
seconds rather than minutes, and here I think the comparison to solo
climbers holds true.

I think, perhaps, we have a greater emotional investment than any
other distinct group in aviation -- comparable to sailors, but even
more to solo climbers, who thrive on the necessity of blending
superlative technique with unflinching concentration.

Perhaps we are comparable to any sport whose greatest rewards come
with reflection, the act itself requiring too much attention to be
thoroughly enjoyed in the moment.

So very true! I had expected the rewards to be always immediate, but
I'm usually far too busy to savor them!

In article ,
John H. Campbell wrote:
http://www.glidingmagazine.com/Featu...cle.asp?id=400

Thanks to John Roake for all the research. I was interested to see how
sizeable the USA contingent is likely to be, I had always thought that the
UK and France were comparable despite their smaller land mass. Germany, of
course, invented the pursuit and turned it into a national trademark. Boy,
what a potential in so many remaining areas of the world.

I like the comment that 85% of the IGC agenda time was for
what 95% of soaring pilots mostly don't participate in.
--

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

"John H. Campbell" wrote:

When attempting to describe soaring I use the analogy of comparing
sailboats to motorboats.

Works for me, too. I even like to add "soaring has more in common with
sailing than with flying" ...

Another common point that soaring shares with sailing is some paradoxal
behaviour that is not obvious to the novice:

For sailing boats, although it may seem that the direction of the wind
will determine the direction of their motion, there is a way to use them
that allows them to go to any direction they want.

For sailplanes, although the global vertical motion of the airmass is nil,
there is a way to use them which allows them to climb.

As a former sailor and a present glider pilot, I find that these paradoxes
are a part of what makes these both activities in some way magic.

"John H. Campbell" wrote:

http://www.glidingmagazine.com/Featu...cle.asp?id=400

Thanks to John Roake for all the research. I was interested to see how
sizeable the USA contingent is likely to be, I had always thought that the
UK and France were comparable despite their smaller land mass. Germany, of
course, invented the pursuit and turned it into a national trademark. Boy,
what a potential in so many remaining areas of the world.

The numbers for France may be over what you would excpect, as
every introduction ride for which a card is filled for our
national organization, the FFVV, is counted by this organization
as one member.