Soaring in the Future???...........Was the topic! Hard to predict.
Much of the world still calls the sport "Gliding" Also, what future?
5 years 20 or 40 years?
Launch methods may have something to do with it. In Germany now, some
clubs are practicing bungee launches again, mostly to show the kids
some fun? On the other hand, the fathers and Grandfathers (Geezers)
not only try to fly 1000 km Distances during the summer but also
during their Winter in the southern hemisphere. There are several
soaring sites in Namibia alone, that you can check up on at the Online
Contest site (OLC).....what they are flying, and the hours and
Distances they are loging. Those 1000 km hunters are almost
exclusively flying selflaunchers, but have started soaring on winches
a long time ago, with very few exeptions. IMHO, selflaunching is the
future, but it may take some time, since there are so many pure
sailplanes still around, that need towing. Also, those self launch
glas slippers that BTW travel each fall and spring between Europe and
S-Afrika (Containers) are at the top end of performance, they will be
around for a while.

I am all for Winch Launching, I started that way too. I could see some
large commercially operated training sites, winch operated, offering
reasonable training,.sprinkled across the country, but soaring made
easy, would be a self launcher at your closest GA -airport, that you
can reach on that bicycle!... Remeber, all the other launch methods
need additional man power, which really is a $ (money) item. The tow
pilot, the wing runner, winch operator.

I think in the distant future the the self launch will have to change
in the way that they can easily taxi, move on the ground unassisted.
The expensive ones will most likely do that first and out of that
insight there might be evolving a self launch V-Sailplane, that almost
anybody can play with? In the not so distant future not much change,
unless some people make some huge efforts.

Soarski
Gliders Of Aspen (geezer)
..