Some UK gliding figures - may not be entirely accurate, but the trend
must be about right;

Year Full members Gliders Launches Hours km flown

1970 7954 544 329000 78000 170000
1980 10553 1406 387000 124000 654000
1990 10586 2030 452000 170000 1671000
2004 8242 2641 316000 149000 1435000

We have dropped a bit in numbers recently, yet there are more gliders
in operation than ever before, and far more soaring than we used to do
in 1970 when I started. Just how many more gliders could we be
expected to have bought?

Lots of UK clubs are healthier than in 1970, too - the numbers of full
members often included many who had joined and left soon after. (My
club had 200 then, of whom less than half renewed the following year.
These days, about 80 percent of our smaller membership renews.)

2004 km are understated. My club secretary reported the total as
unknown, so 0 got included in the total. I believe the same is true of
some other clubs. There could be anomalies in other figures too, but
not enough to sway the long term trend.

Chris N.