On 1 Feb 2009 14:30:04 GMT, Jim Beckman
wrote:


Am I safe to assume that all of these guys have been flying their own
gliders rather than club equipment?

Nowadays they all have their own gliders, but they only bought them
after they had already been in the national team. Until then they flew
the club's gliders.


There are *some* clubs in the US that make the social aspects an
attractive part of the activity. At Blairstown, we do OK - on any decent
day you will find anywhere from four to a dozen folks hanging around the
field after the flying is over, drinking beer and BSing about what great
pilots we all are. Caesar Creek, Texas, Chillhowee, and many others have
very nice facilities. There seems to be some critical number that has to
be reached before this sort of thing can happen. Age also has something
to do with it. Our little group in Somerset has an average age probably
about half of what it is in Blairstown. The younger folks have families,
responsibilities, and even actual social lives beyond the airport, so they
are less inclined to stick around when flying ends.


And I guess that most members have quite a long way top drive to your
airfield, right? That's a general advantage of Europe: High population
density, hence most members live close to the airefield.