John,

Very good job! Thoughtful and well written...

There were many good points that you made, but I was intrigued by your
claim that the US encouraged safer behavior than the Europeans via
deliberate rules changes. From your examples your contention sounds
plausible, but I expect our European friends will have a different
point of view.

I also really agree with this statement: "The natural progression of
our sport should be from license, to thermaling, to cross country, and
then to contests – without losing 95% at each step of the way." The
question is: how do we convince them?

Most new glider pilots I meet think that XC pilots are crazy to leave
the "safety" of the airport, and yet they're comfortable with the fact
that most of the public thinks glider pilots are crazy to leave the
ground. My club is trying to change their minds by letting them
experience XC in a Duo Discus, partnered with an experienced XC pilot.
It remains to be seen how many new XC pilots we'll create this way.
Perhaps the comfort factor will work against us - they won't be
experiencing the thrill (The adrenalin surge? The intense pride?) that
comes from knowing it was entirely due to their own ability that they
found and used the last two thermals needed to land back home instead
of in a farmer's field.

-John


On Oct 5, 7:23 pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
I had the honor of giving the Ralph S. Barnaby lecture at the fall
Board of Directors' meeting. The title is "The evolution of US contest
soaring," which I sort of talked about but couldn't resist adding an
editorial here and there. If you're really, really bored at the
office, you might enjoy the talk:

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...Papers/barnaby...

John Cochrane