Andrew,

I hope you don't take this wrong, but your post below motivated my 'response
gene(!)'...

On 5/6/2012 9:21 PM, Andrew Wood wrote:
Awareness is good. So I suppose trailer stickers are ok. But I
have the sinking feeling, that like most things the SSA does, they
won't do any good, and are more designed to justify the SSA staff
and fill up some space in soaring magazine.

If that's the way you feel, that's the way you feel. So be it. However,
reading this sort of comment immediately raises in my mind a 'targeting' question.

Those who know me know I cut useless bureaucrats little (zero, some might say,
dry chuckle) slack when it comes to justifying their existence. That noted,
IMHO 'targeting' SSA's office staff vis-a-vis this particular promotion is
woefully misguided. Serious Question: What else would you have paid staff DO
to justify their existence when it comes to U.S. soaring's membership woes?
("Hey, staff!!! a newbie just showed up at our club 2,000 miles away from the
office this weekend...c'mon out here and DO something!")

'Fixing' our low membership is NOT anything 'staff' can - or is a position to
- do. (N.B. The preceding statement would be true regardless of the physical
location of the SSA office, for those inclined to bash the Hobbs location.) Au
contraire, Hobbs staff has made it easy for YOU (and ME) to obtain some large
graphic 'grabbers', at cost, arguably potentially a useful thing. Serious
Question: What else would YOU do if YOU were paid SSA staff?

I'll argue any 'cure' will have to come from within SSA's membership, insofar
as hands-on, nitty-gritty, 'license-obtaining' newbie interaction is concerned.

If I saw a big trailer
with a sticker "lets go cave diving" it would not cause me to
contact my local cave diving club. I already know that cave diving
exists, and I don't care. I don't have the passion for it, like most
people feel about flying. The passion has to be there, and it won't
be magically created by trailer stickers or coffee mugs or
whatever.

As at two respondents have previously noted, it's entirely possible to have
the 'glider gene' without knowing it. I'm #3. Not until I exited college and
bumbled into my very first officemate/gliderpilot did it dawn on me the silly
sport was even an *option*! Prior to then all I knew was that every spare cent
and minute of my time once I got a real job was gonna go to obtaining a
pilot's license. That after a misspent youth of making and hand launching
hundreds of paper/balsa gliders (too poor for Cox engines), and obtaining a
degree in aerospace engineering. If a compulsive aviation reader (did I
mention that before?) as myself was in complete ignorance of 'the real glider
option' is it unreasonable to presume lots of others in the populace might be
similarly ignorant? (Of course, I could be unusually stupid, but the degree
tends to put a minor kibosh in that theory. Maybe!)

Further, it took more than my first flight for 'the soaring hook' to be set.
Somewhere along the months-long line of obtaining my glider license - which
instruction I began solely because it was more convenient and less expensive
than power at that time/location - it dawned on me soaring was sufficiently
fun/of compelling interest (and future breadth) that I actively decided to put
the obtaining of a power license on hold, because soaring was sufficiently
scratching my itch. Never did obtain one, though about 8 years later, for a
while I co-owned a C-150 purchased explicitly for that purpose. Took power
'things' all the way to being signed off for the practical flight test,
too...then walked away from it with nary a pang. Soaring ultimately 'won.'

Those unfortunate people who do have the passion for
gliding.....they are destined to spend a lot of time and money, and
will already be bugging their parents, visiting airports, and on the
internet looking for local gliding clubs. We could tear off all the
trailer stickers, paint them in camouflage and string barbed wire
around the airport, and they'd still sneak in. All we can really do,
is make sure those new people can easily find us, and welcome
them when they come.

A plausible hypothesis, but see above tale...

In fact, I'll argue this is more likely a self-fulfilling prophecy than a
meaningful hypothesis.
- - - - - -

Considering the question of why the U.S. pilot population is shrinking,
history may be a useful guide. Remember WW-II? Hundreds of thousands of
'ad-hoc, instantly minted' pilots returned from it, and that AFTER the pilot
population had already 'bubble-expanded' subsequent to Lindbergh's
earth-compelling flight. In other words, for the USA, WW-II was an artificial
pilot boosting/increasing event...and its effects likely linger today.

To begin with, any student of U.S. light plane manufacturing history likely
knows how thoroughly lousily light plane manufacturers misread future airplane
demand from this 'war bubble.' (Kids, can you spell 'excess inventory'?)

However, only a person utterly lacking in knowledge of human nature would
seriously argue that some percentage of this 'war bubble' DID NOT 'have the
flying gene' and DID do their best to convey it to their progeny, and that we
may still be benefiting from their 'fortuitous' (can a war be fortuitous?)
discovery in generational terms. All this took place withOUT a post-WW-II
'Lindberghian event' to help boost awareness. (Yes, I remember the - very
short lived in general-public terms - excitement associated with Dick Rutan
and Jeanna Yeager's round-the-world, unrefueled, non-stop flight. I *don't*
recall their tickertape parade in NYC, and I dare say neither of them would be
- as Lindbergh was until the day he died - 'instantly recognized' today by the
vast majority of the general public. So no 'bubble event' here!)

My point here is WW-II skewed the U.S. 'natural pilot base' for a L-O-N-G time.

Meanwhile, who knows what percentage of population at any given point in time
might have 'the pilot gene'? Not me! But I'd bet Real Money fewer of that
group also contain 'the glider gene', simply because gliding/soaring lacks any
obvious utility (unlike power flight), and, individual ignorance (my case). I
knew I had 'the pilot gene' but did NOT know I had 'the glider pilot
gene'...and it took me a long time to leearn I did. So far as I can tell the
ONLY reason I discovered gliding was being cubicled with an already hooked
nutcase.

Exposure is good.

Follow-up by 'local feet on the ground' WILL be necessary (arguably, crucial).

Regards,

Bob - genetically odd - W.





At 15:42 06 May 2012, Bob D wrote:
Hi, Bob DeLeon here=85creator of Let's Go Gliding. There is but
one
objective to the campaign: AWARENESS.

Remainder of Bob DeL.'s sensible post snipped...