On Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:48:12 +0000, Ian Cant wrote:

Paul Hanson wrote:

And what of it if today's youth want 'instant gratification'? Should
that not then be the goal for soaring operations to provide? If that is
our reality, than we either need to adapt to it or fade into
irrelevance.

-Paul


That is a very perceptive comment. If instant gratification is the
primary demand from our marketplace, and our primary goal is to expand
our customer base, then we should aim for that instant gratification. A
single long introductrory flight in the highest-performance
self-launcher to be found; with the promise of solo in a couple of days,
private license within a week ?

But perhaps the soul of our sport is that it does NOT provide that kind
of instant gratification, that instead it rewards prolonged effort.

I think you'll find that there's very little, apart from theme-park
rides, computer games, watching movies and reading that provide instant
gratification.

Everything else, from every day activities like riding a bike or driving
a car right the way through to complex and technical sports involves
time, a learning curve and an input of time and effort from the
participant.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |