FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

I would think that clubs and the SSA would subsidize this to reach critical mass per a strategic plan.

College kids are perfect. High school programs also make sense.

But this kind of thing always needs great care and feeding and many coordinated SSA leader hands on deck for sure.

We can't afford to be failed at this one.

Someone may have said something similar on previous post for I have not read all.

Looking at current sports in the Olympics (http://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/sports/) it seems to me the one thing they have in common is spectators. Maybe not televised but in the stands. IMHO, I think the committee looks at what will bring revenue into the host site. There have been great strides in helping make soaring better for spectators with tracking but until sailplane racing gets more into every household and becomes an event that can be watched and cashed in on, its a long shot to be an Olympic sport.

True, but this is a new age. Traditional media and even tradition spectating have changed dramatically and continues to change dramatically. Soaring has an opportunity to get ahead of that rather than constantly trying to catch up. Spectators are now world wide via a smartphone either live or via a recording of live video (or edited summary) watched at the spectators leisure.

I think soaring Olympic spectators could be at the airport over a big screen just like sailing often is (see first link below). Imagine watching small boats race 1 mile away. Not very exciting in and of itself. That's not really what those spectators are there. The spectators are there to support the sport and be a part of it. They are watching the movie screen to see the on the water camera footage. At least with soaring they can see the actual finish up close from this position.

Here is the most recent Olympics sailing event as an example...

This one shows a good view of 5-10k spectators watching the sailing event from the English shore in the very beginning of this video: https://youtu.be/mOD3JSw-ghg

High performance sailing: https://youtu.be/4emdfoTvNKk

CNN interview of German team creating millions of media impressions for sailing (free promotion x10,000+): https://youtu.be/u7EUQbsYHrc

This could be soaring.

An interesting data point in my opinion would be Harris Hill and their Juniors. It is far-and-away the largest, longest running, most highly supported junior group out there (there are others that are growing, but HHSC is the poster child). If you are really interested in the topic, it would be good to get some hard data backed up by some qualitative input to understand exactly what has been generated by this great organization. Off the top of my head, I can name a few (less than 10) competition pilots who are currently active coming out of the HHSC program. Sean Murphy is heading to Benalla for our 15M team. Heinz Weisenbuhler has represented the US in Open and Doppelsitzers. There are several others in "my" generation (40 to 50 year olds). In the last 20 years though, there are only a couple who have stuck with it, despite all of the support one could ask for. More often than not they've been around for a couple of years in their late teens/early 20s, then "life happens." Right now, the next great hope is Noah Ritter.

So there's the rub... if the best-supported Junior organization has literally a handful of pilots who go on to embrace racing, what are we missing?

Sean, I don't disagree with you that what's been done in the past isn't necessarily the best/only model. But I think slinging arrows at "The SSA" when in fact every one of these initiatives relies on hard working (unpaid) volunteers who mostly have other jobs isn't going to get the reaction you might be hoping for.

That's it for me this week. Work and family beckon.

p3

On Monday, November 7, 2016 at 7:50:07 AM UTC-6, Sean wrote:
I would think that clubs and the SSA would subsidize this to reach critical mass per a strategic plan.

Really? How are you going to do that?

My Eagle Fund contributions are not enough already?

What's in it for me?

I remember John from my years at the new Black Forest. He was dedicated
to youth in soaring.

On 11/6/2016 8:56 PM, Papa3 wrote:
Sean,

If nothing else, you are entertaining.

Busy with work this evening, but in a nutshell... The Collegiate Soaring Association has been around for 30 years. It is an affiliate of the SSA. It was founded by Dr. John Campbell in 1984 who was a post-doc at Princeton when I was an undergraduate. The two of us, along with several others, spent years working very hard to revive college-based soaring activity. John was incredibly passionate about the project, and spent countless hours promoting, cajoling, and driving this. We obtained 501 C3 status, we received a few donations, we even hosted competitions. I personally drove around to Penn State, Ohio State, RIT, and several others with John to conduct workshops, help with recruiting drives, etc. I drove the 1-36 which was donated around to several sites as a loaner to help drive activity.

Eventually, we were able to pull together a few Collegiate Championships, but in reality they were just a couple of juniors participating in existing SSA Regionals (I believe Sean Franke won one, though calling it an "MSU Championship" was really a stretch). John managed to pull a "local" competition together in Colorado due in large part to the presence of the Air Force Academy. When John tragically died way too young from brain cancer, the CSA really started to fade away.

In the end, it turned out that College Soaring clubs are very hard to maintain. As an example, the Princeton club was at one point one of the largest campus organizations, with over 70 members. It was started by Steve Sliwa, himself a Harris Hill Junior. We had tremendous advantages, being a university with an active Flight Research program and our own airport. That meant qualified CFIs, towpilots, and even mechanics. But, over the years, the university got out of the Flight Research business, they sold the airport, and the nearest glider operation was an hour away. After a few years, the membership was down to a handful of students, and those students rotate out every 4 years. Also, many recent graduates are challenged by finances, time, and frankly have other passions. So, imagine the difficulty at other colleges and universities that don't already have an active group of students naturally inclined toward aviation.

Soaring is a very quirky sport. If a person with as much energy and drive as John can't achieve critical mass in Collegiate Soaring over 10 years, it's not something that a couple of posts on RAS will change.

Erik Mann (P3)

.

--
Dan, 5J

More sailing commentary. Really funny!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPjMvTmE2g

On Monday, November 7, 2016 at 10:57:31 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
I remember John from my years at the new Black Forest. He was dedicated
to youth in soaring.

On 11/6/2016 8:56 PM, Papa3 wrote:
Sean,

If nothing else, you are entertaining.

Busy with work this evening, but in a nutshell... The Collegiate Soaring Association has been around for 30 years. It is an affiliate of the SSA.. It was founded by Dr. John Campbell in 1984 who was a post-doc at Princeton when I was an undergraduate. The two of us, along with several others, spent years working very hard to revive college-based soaring activity. John was incredibly passionate about the project, and spent countless hours promoting, cajoling, and driving this. We obtained 501 C3 status, we received a few donations, we even hosted competitions. I personally drove around to Penn State, Ohio State, RIT, and several others with John to conduct workshops, help with recruiting drives, etc. I drove the 1-36 which was donated around to several sites as a loaner to help drive activity.

Eventually, we were able to pull together a few Collegiate Championships, but in reality they were just a couple of juniors participating in existing SSA Regionals (I believe Sean Franke won one, though calling it an "MSU Championship" was really a stretch). John managed to pull a "local" competition together in Colorado due in large part to the presence of the Air Force Academy. When John tragically died way too young from brain cancer, the CSA really started to fade away.

In the end, it turned out that College Soaring clubs are very hard to maintain. As an example, the Princeton club was at one point one of the largest campus organizations, with over 70 members. It was started by Steve Sliwa, himself a Harris Hill Junior. We had tremendous advantages, being a university with an active Flight Research program and our own airport. That meant qualified CFIs, towpilots, and even mechanics. But, over the years, the university got out of the Flight Research business, they sold the airport, and the nearest glider operation was an hour away. After a few years, the membership was down to a handful of students, and those students rotate out every 4 years. Also, many recent graduates are challenged by finances, time, and frankly have other passions. So, imagine the difficulty at other colleges and universities that don't already have an active group of students naturally inclined toward aviation.

Soaring is a very quirky sport. If a person with as much energy and drive as John can't achieve critical mass in Collegiate Soaring over 10 years, it's not something that a couple of posts on RAS will change.

Erik Mann (P3)

.

--
Dan, 5J

John was a dynamo. The last time I saw him was at an SSA Banquet. He was ravaged by cancer at the time and very frail. As soon as he saw me he asked if I was going to get a glider club started at Iowa State. I could see the twinkle in his eye. The energy was still there. Amazing.

He was a great guy and an example for the rest of us to aspire to

I think the Harris Hill group is doing great. But they are unique in many ways in terms of the facility, history, museum, funding, etc.

What's missing? :-). How about what isn't missing?

1) Serious focus at the SSA level. Leadership and realistic prioritization..
2) A sense of urgency nationally (carefully drilled down to the club level) and a plan. Oddly youth soaring programs would be very healthy for soaring clubs yet we seem to have few and no real national focus.
3) A national plan to motivate/help clubs to do what Harris Hill is doing.
4) A website (for the youth specifically) along with social channels. Kids do not want to talk to us about this, they want to talk to other kids. It needs to be self sustaining and "theirs" not ours. (a different conversation)
5) The chemistry and inertia of 30 such vibrant youth programs (or 10-15 in a region) operating simultaneously and feeding off each other. One or two at a time is not going to ignite this. Many need to be doing what Harris hill is doing now.

IMO, the SSA leadership needs to seriously re-prioritize (rules committee, etc) and re-focus on making sure that we develop these programs and measure success constantly.

Just look at Britain, Australia, France, Germany, etc. They seem to have great youth energy and participation (at all levels). Many have several national youth competitions, each with 50+ youth pilots each (plus instructors, etc). Imagine 3 or 4 seniors full of Juniors. Great parties for the kids, fun, etc. A great vibe. Healthy, active social media, video (youtube), twitter, snap-chat, etc.

A few quick examples (links to websites, etc all available and lots of inter-team taunting [very healthy]):
(Some of these are all 50x more active than our own SSA overall websites and social media)
(PS...websites are becoming almost irrelevant)
https://www.facebook.com/ukjuniorgliding/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176599515713334/
https://www.facebook.com/GermanJuniorGlidingTeam/
https://www.facebook.com/Belgian-Jun...7310690991217/
https://www.gliding.co.uk/juniorgliding
Also France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Poland, etc, etc, etc, etc.
All flying FAI rules together by the way.

The truth is that we may never recover. The kids are trying but they are going to need significantly more help than they have at present. We (SSA, US Soaring) cant survive without solving this problem soon. It needs to be a huge priority. It simply is not.

How the US fell so far off the ledge with youth soaring yet so many other countries are still thriving (and highly organized and focused) is puzzling to me (despite the obvious). What happened 15, 20, 25 years ago to cause this near extinction vs. other counties east and west? Australia has the same size, isolation problem but seems to be developing many juniors. Even Canada is stronger. Anyone have any thoughts?

3) A national plan to motivate/help clubs to do what Harris Hill is doing

Harris Hill is unique because of the history of the site, and therefore
the governmental preservation and backing of the facility. The HHSC is
essentially given the whole facility to operate free of charge as long
as they "provide rides for the public". As I understand it, the
government does all of the facilities maintenance as well. The rides
also produce revenue , so they basically have no overhead costs.
Because of this, they are able to free up funding for programs like their
Juniors program. Even as prolific as the HHSC program is, they have
the same issues with young people staying "with it" over time. One
can only try to "set the hook" so that they come back after "life" gets in

the way.. ie, college, getting married, having kids, job, money, etc, etc.

The club which I have belonged to for the last 52 years (Nutmeg
Soaring Association formerly of CT, and now in Freehold, NY) has had
many scholarship students over the years. We have had them go on to
the USAFA , USNA, and other fine schools and universities. Some have
wound up as military aviators, airline and corporate pilots. Very, very
few have been able to stay with soaring as they went about the
business of living life. We can only hope that they can come back at a
time when life will permit it....

Most soaring operations/clubs don't have anywhere near the
"discretionary cash flow" that HHSC may have, so they can't spend as
much on youth programs. It is a very tough nut to crack....

RO