Andreas,

It is a mind-set in US clubs. First, hardly any clubs use winches and
they must spend enormous amounts of money to own, operate, and insure tow
planes. Second, there are few places where a winch could be used that are
near a population area big enough to draw members to support a club; we see
a turnover of about 15% of the membership every year. Third, we are busy,
busy, busy in this country; we work longer hours and have more time
constraints than Europeans (I think this has been proved), and this means
that we want to show up, rig, fly, and leave without staying around all
day to help others and to be a true club where people hang out and
socialize with families. Most clubs don't have female pilots and wives
and girlfriends grow tired of coming to a place where there is nothing for
them to do or no one to socialize with. Fourth, all of this means we want
our own equipment so that we can treat it as we wish without consulting
others about it; this pride of ownership means that privately owned
gliders are beautifully kept, for the most part, and club machines are
"junk" in the words of a short-term (4 years) resident from Finland.

At 17:56 30 January 2009, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:34:56 -0800 (PST), Brad
wrote:

Maybe the younger generation and their quest for adrenalin laced
activites would find competitive soaring compelling, but how many can
afford their own sailplane?

Hi Brad,

I admit that - from a European point of view- I'm having difficulties
to understand why most US based glider pilots think that it's
necessary to own a glider.

Here in Europe by far most gliders are owned by clubs, making it
possible for the club members to fligh latest technology for a yearly
price that hardly exceeds $800.

For most clubs in Germany it's common nowadays that student pilots
fly LS-4 or DG-300. Basic training is usually done in ASK-21 these
days. Nearly any club clubs offer flapped ships (ASW-20, ASW-27) and
state-of-the-art doubleseaters (Duo Dicus, DG-505) to its members.
There is absolutely no interest in flying something inferior.


Why isn't it possible to do that in the US? A couple of US clubs whose
homepages I've seen seem to be able to do that.




Bye
Andreas