W dniu piątek, 8 sierpnia 2014 19:14:02 UTC+2 użytkownik Fox Two napisał:
There have been several threads on RAS recently about the disappointing state of our sport in the USA: a shrinking membership, few cross-country pilots, fewer contest pilots, and no world champions. If we're going to reverse these trends, we need more than contest rule tweaking and membership drive gimmicks. We need to make our sport exciting so that we don't just attract new members but, more importantly, keep the ones that we already have.



Our sport is about soaring long distances at fast speeds or performing energy-conserving aerobatics. Of course there are also the antique enthusiasts and those who enjoy simply boring holes in the sky above the airfield - but we sell the sex. We lose potential new members when they see the Schweizer 2-33, we lose existing members when there's nothing better to fly than a Grob 103, and we lose even more due to boredom because cross-country training is a rare luxury, and inexperienced pilots are reluctant to venture away from the nest alone. The problems of our sport all originate at the club level - and it will be up to the clubs to fix them. Our clubs need to offer high-performance gliders and training that goes beyond the FAA's Practical Test Standards.



The Europeans dominate this sport for the same reason the US military dominates the battlefield: they spend more money and train more than anybody else. There are national soaring centers to teach the teachers so they in turn can offer the highest-quality training to their club's members. With the assistance of their national organizations, European clubs blaze a clear path from debutant to the diamond badge, with training at every step of the way. Unfortunately, the European model won't work in the USA (something to do with our distrust of socialism), but we can build our own model of success based on theirs.



THINK BIG: Imagine a 'United States National Soaring Center.' Let's put it where even the Europeans would be envious: Minden. Employ professional instructors with state-of-the-art sailplanes teaching our clubs' instructors, offering year-round cross-country and mountain-wave camps, and coaching the US Teams. A pipe dream you say? It would be expensive for sure - but it wouldn't be impossible.



The SSA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which means among other things, that it is able to receive tax-deductible donations. And it does. For example, in 2011 the SSA received a $1 million cash donation. Would $1 million pay for the National Soaring Center? No. But the SSA could use some of that money to get ALL of the clubs 501(c)3 tax status. A team of tax professionals, paid for by the SSA, could work with the clubs to restructure each club so that they could receive tax-deductible donations. Every club member would immediately benefit: club dues, for example, can be tax deductible. Few club members would object to paying higher dues if they were tax deductible, and some club members would love to make tax-deductible donations to the club. I would much rather give a thousand bucks to my club than to Uncle Sam! This would allow the clubs to finally leave the 1960's and get some gliders that aren't 50 years old. High-performance gliders would attract and retain more members, paying even more dues. Eventually, there would be enough money for the National Soaring Center in Minden.



It's not a sexy solution, but we would have a growing membership, more cross-country pilots and competitors, and maybe even a world champion.



Chris Fleming

Hi, I am writing on behalf of Polish KSS (Karkonosze Soaring Society), a non-profit organization of seasoned pilots, who believe, that teaching less experienced in an orderly way brings more fruits that letting them alone to discover rules of soaring the way, Lilienthal did. Time consuming, frustrating and at the end, non-efficient.
Karkonosze is the chain of mountains on Polish-Czech border, where unique thermal and wave conditions permit for nearly year-round soaring activity.
We have been watching this thread as it contains many elements
relevant to all national soaring communities.

In short, the Polish soaring community believes that the model of our
(KSS) activity had substantially invigorated gliding scene in Poland,
with all subsequent benefits (increased participation, publicity,
training, increased flight hours within community etc). All this had
been done without interference with the existing structures and
without substantial monetary investment, basically by using existing
potential and underutilized resources. This is why we post in this
thread.

To be clear, we do not make any claims to "own" any successes of
Polish competition glider pilots, who seem to be on the roll recently.
Bulk of our activity is below that level, and we are active only last
couple of years. There are other established structures here which
could make such claims, if anyone could.

Gliding in Poland is (roughly) based on local Aero Clubs
(self-financing) associated in central Polish Aero Club (minimal state
donations, majority financing by associate clubs) and two nationwide
gliding schools (plains and mountain) financed from within that
community. Financial situation is probably similar to what is in the
US, with differences in income levels in Poland vs US at one side and
legacy of cheap, usually exclusive leases on big grass airfields at
the other side.

Typical route for someone in gliding is taking a basic course at some
local club (about $1700 with first 10 solos), then training for
licence (about the same cost), then training individually for XC, then
competition participation. With attrition/delays at each stage as was
discussed in this thread.

First two stages of training are standardized nationwide (in the
main). Training is still based on old wooden ships (SZD-9, SZD-30)
with some glass whenever possible or necessary (aerobatics). Much
depends on how financially savvy a given club is. Some clubs gather
large fleets of cheap ($3k) SZD-30, some clubs go for more expensive
and less numerous glass. Clubs have usually several SZD-48s, which go
for "high performance" here. Ships build after 1990 are rare (unless
privately owned by club members or at national center school).

Training works well locally at the basic level (till first 10 solos).
It is usually organized in groups (10 is typical, but 40 may happen)
and for short intense periods - about 6 flying days whole, contiguous
if possible. This can be done as weather impact is moderate (training
is circuit patterns around sunset and sunrise, short small showers and/or
low - 1200' - cloudbase are tolerated). Clubs mostly have cheap local
accommodations (campsites and showers, dormitories, diner type bars).

The problems start after solo for reasons discussed in this thread. At
any given time, at each airfield there are few people for further
training. Due to naturally smaller group being interested, weather
uncertainties (thermals needed!) etc. This leads to inefficiencies and
for some, disillusions. This is even more problem at XC training
level. In reality, people after license are left to themselves.

Here is where the concept introduced by KSS seem to change things. KSS
is just an animator group, with minimal resources (couple of gliders).
What we do is we organize, throughout the year, a week or 2 weeks long
training camps based at various airfields, in Poland and abroad. Camps
are usually targeted at XC training level, but many are accessible for
student-pilots (after solo, before license). The elements a
- use the infrastructure of some local club, augmented for the event (towplanes)
- use local club gliders but ask all participants to bring ships from
their clubs if possible
- invite (volunteer) instructors from all over the country, in
addition to local folks.
- make sure several people with considerable competition experience
are present and participate very actively

Typical attendance is 30-40 plus about 5 instructors. Usually there is
someone with world level competition experience, multiple people with
national level competition experience. The day is organized in a way
typical for competition (task setting, debriefings, meteo, log
analysis etc). Every day there is some gliding-related lecture,
usually very interactive and centered on XC performance.

Because of instructors and doubleseaters available, there is much of
intensive training, and students may fly tasks they could otherwise
only hear about (e.g. wave).

Because of the group character of the event, there is no problem with
retrieves (well, some pretty long and late night if 70% of pilots land
out :-) )

The fascinating thing is that this worked out with no changes to
existing organisation and no substantial money expenditure.
Admittedly, there is a lot of "sweat equity" put in by the whole FI
community (vacation time etc). It turned out that there is MUCH unused
capacity in many clubs (even at national gliding schools), much good
will and volunteer time at all the local clubs we work with, and much
pent-up demand nationwide (we have people come from as far as
Australia as well). Somehow at most local clubs there were at any
given time 1-2 people who wanted to participate in some form of group
training, and could not have this locally. The lists for the camps
close within hours or days, there is always a waiting list. The
benefits of large regular gatherings are obvious in many aspects.

Each camp is open (and aimed at) to people who would before not
participate in regular competition events, for various reasons. This
really brings down some barriers. But in practice, maybe quarter of
pilots are quite hard-core.

What is important is that local clubs support this idea (ship rental
to their members for the event for example). There is even a feedback
- some clubs organize similar things locally - people who participated
in KSS events got enthusiastic enough to mimic them, on a smaller
scale perhaps.

We would invite you to talk with us about details, and/or come to our
camps (in 2015 we can accept more participants)
to get the feel if this type of activity could be some element
of the US scene as well. For those who would want to come please
contact us early so the details (e.g. license validation) can be taken
care of at reasonable pace.

KSS was involved also in some high-profile things (Sebastian Kawa flew in
Himalaya in the ship a KSS member provided, we broke through into national TV
coverage, some Worlds competitors from outside Poland are training
with us), but the real impact is for the community.