I've edited Bill's comments below because in many ways I'm the poster-
child for his comments. I started in power-flying. Got my license
and was starting to get bored after only 70 hours of flying in
straight lines. I had a dream of someday building my own airplane and
joined the EAA. I wanted to visit some build projects and
fortuitously Brad Hill invited me up to his shop to look at his
"Glidair" and HP-24 projects. I was curious about the long wings and
the things he was saying, so I went out to the gliderport on his
suggestion and took a ride - and was instantly hooked.

(SIDE NOTE: Luckily my ride was in a DG-1000 not a nasty-ass ratted-
out 2-33. I appreciate the economics of a 2-33 but giving people rides
in 2-33's or worn-out Blaniks is a sure way to turn them off to the
sport. They're 50-year-old technology and it shows. They are OK for
training - the Blaniks more than the 2-33's - but these aircraft have
NOTHING to do with modern soaring and do not give people any sense of
what's possible)

The point is, I was a motivated inquisitive pilot. I've been obsessed
with flying since I was a kid (I grew up just a couple of hours from
Mojave and followed Rutan's projects from afar with young eager
eyes). Yet with all my curiosity and motivation, I didn't have a CLUE
about soaring or what was possible.

Many of the soaring pilots out there just don't have a clue how
extremely far Soaring is from the public consciousness. Its just not
even on the radar. IMHO, in decreasing order of public awareness you
have: Airline crashes, flying in Airliners, Small airplane crashes,
Skydiving (partly because so many TV ads use skydiving), Flying
computer games, Flying R/C airplanes, Hang-gliding & Paragliding,
Small piston airplanes, and then wayyyy down at the bottom you have
Sailplanes & Ultralights in some kind of jumble.

Again, as Bill pointed out, even power pilots just don't know or
understand. I gave a talk last fall to the Washington State Pilots
Association and out of 100+ people in the audience maybe 10 knew that
we could stay aloft for more than an hour and go "cross-country". And
it makes sense - all they ever see is the local training Op with
takeoffs and landings happening repeatedly throughout the day, and
students circling and circling (and circling and circling and
circling) right close to the airport.

The ugly truth is that the people involved in the sport let things
stagnate over the last 25 years. Things got really comfortable and
the sport failed to adapt or refresh itself (in terms of new blood
into the organization). As a result, we're now way "behind the curve"
and have to put in EXTRA effort, just to halt the decline. Its an
especially deep hole that we have to dig out of, because a lot of the
experts are old and burned out - making things that much harder. But
despite these challenges (or perhaps because of them) - the effort HAS
to be made.

Frankly, I'm tired and fed up with all of the naysayers who claim that
this effort (or others) will never work. Your negative attitude is
PRECISELY WHY the soaring pilot population is declining. You don't
have to love the SSA or everything it does to see the value in
promoting the sport and trying to get the word out.

If you're rooting against the "Let's Go Gliding" campaign then you're
nothing more than a selfish *******, and you are a detriment to the
sport.

Each pilot is a "lone wolf" in the cockpit of a sailplane; but the
sport only works if there's a critical mass of people involved. Even
a selfish pilot has a vested interest in maintaining that critical
mass - if nothing else than for your own ability to continue flying
(and secondarily, so there's a market of people to buy your sailplane
when you finally sell it).

--Noel


On May 7, 8:21*am, Bill D wrote:
The thing with the 'glider gene' is people don't know they have it
until they are made aware of soaring. *(It doesn't take much -

They don't know about us.

They don't know how spectacular this sport is.

inadvertently done a great job of hiding. *Very few people even know
we exist much less what we do.

I constantly talk to airplane pilot groups and I'm amazed at how
little they know. *Almost to a person, they think gliding is exactly

When shown what modern sailplanes can really do, and are doing on a
regular basis, they're flabbergasted. *Explaining the OLC is an