At 11:30 28 January 2005, Don Johnstone wrote:
In the UK we are suffering the same problem. Distance
to a club is seldom a factor for us, our country is
much smaller. Getting to fly is not a problem as no
licence is required to fly a glider in the UK and even
the instructors do not have to hold power type categories.
I would have to say that these are not the cause of
the decline, not in the UK anyway.

I think it has more to do with the perceptions of the
new generations. They are able to access 'fun' on tap.
Go somewhere where their fun is provided, have it,
and then go on to something else.

Not only that, but the youth culture today is one of
physical indolence. 'You mean you have to put it together
and take it apart every time you want to fly?' We
move around less, play computer games instead of physical
ones, put on weight, and become physically lazy. Exertion
is for the very lowly; we don't even have ditch diggers
anymore; struggle is an intellectual concept only.

Maybe none of this is correct. Perhaps we have conquered
the air and there is no longer any romance in it.
Airline pilots are just bus drivers, a private airplane
is just another vehicle. Even mountain climbing has
been reduced to climbing fake rocks in a shopping center
boutique. Who can say where any of this is going?
Maybe we will wind up as nothing but brains stored
in little cubicles and our jobs will be 'make-work'
thinking just to keep up occupied. Thereis a novel
in there somewhere; who wrote it?