getting more people to show up at contests, any contests!


How can the key to increasing participation be anything other than
this? The big question is "how". To understand the "how" you need to
know "why" folks are not already participating.

Has anyone considered a poll of some kind (letter? email?) to all SSA
members regarding their interest in contest flying? Ask them what's
keeping them from competing. Travel? Expense? Intimidation? Ask them
what type of event would get them to try an organized event. Regional
contest? Local club contest? Exhibition/training contest? Non-scored
fun fly?

If you look at the OLC, there's obviously a lot of pilots with some
semblance of a competitive spirit. Right now there are 1,153 pilots in
North America (923 in the US) with flights logged. Is there no way to
reach out and tap that? If you can interest even a few percent of
them, that's a nice increase in participation.

I'm one of those pilots. I'm a relative newb with two seasons of xc
under my belt. When I think about joining a regional contest, I can
tell you the intimidation factor is quite high. There's a level of
complexity with rules/procedures/traffic/etc that is magnitudes higher
than a typical xc flight from the home airport. It's a big step for
someone who hasn't flown a contest. Especially for those of us in
small clubs. I think maybe you experienced contest guys may have
forgotten what it's like to be in these shoes. Find a way to break
down some of these barriers with a more gradual "stepping-stone"
approach and I think you'll see some new blood.

As Tim said, growing participation (and the club class) has to be
looked at as a longer-term effort. You can't write it off after only a
half-hearted attempt.