I have just read through this thread. I don't think
the problem is one single factor but there is a problem
with infrastructure. Just look around your club, what
is the average age of the instructors? Is that average
reducing? Are the numbers of instructors increasing
year on year? The sad truth is that if we were able
to recruit large numbers of new students most clubs
would not have the instructor resources to train them
and sadly if you don't enable people to see they are
progressing at a decent rate they become disallusioned
and find something else 'more exciting'.
We have been seeing (in the UK) a gradually decreasing
instructor pool. I had my first instructor category
at 18 and until this year I had retained it. Over the
years being an instructor has become less and less
of an advantage and the club where I flew even charged
me more membership that someone who did not instruct.
I flew about 5 hours in 2003 in my own glider from
my own club. The only time I could fly it was if I
went away where I could not be the duty instructor.
I don't think my case is unique. It is absolutely
pointless trying to attract new students until we have
put right the decline in the numbers of people qualified
to teach them, and that means attaracting young people
into instructing. With the cost of attaining an instructor
category, where the potential instructor has to spend
large amounts of his own cash, it is perhaps not surprising
that becoming an instructor is less popular. There
is no doubt that it is possible to purchase your own
glider, with a reasonable performance, for less money
than you will spend on getting a full cat rating or
even an Ass Cat. Given that choice which way would
you choose?
Seeing what happens tomorrow is not a plan!!!!!

At 08:30 04 December 2004, Mike Lindsay wrote:

Todays youth have more disposable income than most
of us could ever have
dreamed of at their age and in the future they are
likely to have more
leisure time and even more money.

Not sure about more leisure time. People seem to have
to work harder
than they did 30 years ago.

Flying has to become something that
youngsters 'want to do' it has to become cool. Rather
than sticking with the
old way of doing things perhaps we should fire every
club committee member
on the planet over 30 and let the youngsters with backwards
baseball caps,
wrap around shades and baggy pants drag soaring into
the 21st century. Us
old farts are not doing too good a job of stewardship
if you ask me.

Er, what younger people do you mean? At our club the
average age of the
members attending on Wednesdays is just short of 70.
It may be slightly
younger at weekends, but not by very much.

We need a new approach.

Ian





--
Mike Lindsay