Bearsoars wrote:

Most all of our sports are driven by Television and Advertising. It is
time for Soaring to get a piece of that pie. ...

http://www.126association.org/graphics/CamelAd.jpg

Looking at this ad above(from the 1-26 Association site), you would
guess there was a time in the US when soaring was as common a pastime
as smoking ... but, that was actually never true even in the post WWII
period when aviation was the only 3-D reality sport. As others have
noted, competition is tough ... ad sponsors are going to look at
soaring and say the potential consumer base is not worth the expense
(by a large margin) .. and we won't grow (if we want to) unless we get
a lot more exposure in prime time media outlets. If a Nats was covered
by a major network, that could be a start ... but if the viewer numbers
were low, and they probably would be, a Nats would never be covered
again. Maybe we could use gliders in one of the extreme challanges ...
stuff contestants in the front of a couple/four 2-place ships
(instructors in back of course) ... and they have to fly silver
distance ... cameras in the cockpit could cover the anguish and joy we
all experience going XC ... and of course you have the drama of the
off-field.


KK - Ken Kochansk