On Dec 17, 9:44*am, Tom Gardner wrote:
On Dec 17, 4:08*pm, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:



On Dec 17, 7:22*am, Tom Gardner wrote:

On Dec 17, 2:20*pm, wrote:

As you allude- the other easy catch market is the person who now has
their kids launched and wants to go have some fun.
FWIW
UH

There's a slightly younger variant of that, who might therefore be
ensnared slightly earlier: someone
* - with a teenager that is spreading their wings and becoming
* * interested in "the wrong things" (e.g. shopping malls
* - who would like to extend the time that their offspring
* * wants to do something with their father

Worked for me and my daughter, I'm pleased to say!

My $.02
We get a fair number of young people in the under 18 y/o age bracket,
then almost none in the 18 - 25(ish) age group. *I think initial
exposure is a factor, but MONEY is a huge issue. *The very young
people are introduced to soaring (for the most part) by parents or
relatives who also pay for their flying. *By age 18, they're usually
pretty much one their own for flying expenses. It's not until later
(sometimes much later) that they can again afford to get and stay
involved in soaring. *In my case, I always wanted to fly. I just
couldn't afford it until I was in my very late 40's.

Personally I'm not convinced that money is the main reason for the
18-40 hole.
Over here, clubs are much not very far away (less petrol) and winch
launches
are cheap - typically 3 launches or an hour in the air take about 3
hours
work to earn.

I suspect that moving away from home to work/university, the other
gender,
family responsibilities, hours in the week, and other interests are
more significant.

There's nothing in the above posts that I would disagree with.

However, I would add that the 18-25 group are starting families and
careers. Unlike the job scene when I was in that age group, today's
employers tend to expect 60+ hours a week (Even though they only pay
for 40.) The term "wage slave" rings true.

Today, entry level jobs pay so little that many employees have second
jobs to make ends meet and repay their staggering college tuition debt
- sometimes as much as $250,000. I get the feeling few young people
have much in the way of "free time" or disposable income.

40 years ago only top level managers were "exempt" and even relatively
senior employees got overtime pay. That meant almost everyone got
every weekend off. Few had tuition debt to repay.

The observation that the groups who still have some "free time" and
disposable income are those with few ordinary obligations also rings
true. Fortunately, there are enough of them to meet our growth
goals. We just have to find them and let them know about our sport.
I think it's likely that "cherry picking" other groups that attract
this unencumbered demographic is the way to go.

Bill D