On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 8:24:35 PM UTC+2, Soartech wrote:
There are some very good points brought up here. However I think we are overlooking a basic change in youth behavior that has occurred nearly world-wide over the last ~20 years. That is the tendency of young people to A. avoid risky activities outside the relative safety of "experiences" such as amusement park rides and other programmed events, and

I agree that this is there. Although I wouldn't limit to youth. We live in a risk averse society to the point where people are no longer able to judge risk, because of infrequent exposure.

However there is a difference between precieved risk and actual risk. I know no PG pilot who hasn't been to the doctor or worse due to a landing related incident.

Insurances here think the same. You need a special insurance for PGing here, not the case for soaring.

B. a decreased tendency to initiate an activity such as building or repairing things.
There is hope there. Have a look at the large Maker movement currently grabbing the states and europe. Sure its in an organized fashion. But that may be a key argument there, providing a more structured approach to gliding.

I am sure all of you have witnessed both these characteristics in today's youths. The reasons for this are many and may include "helicopter parenting", child coddling and easy availability of simulated electronic experiences.
Now add to that the reduced amount of income experienced by many youth as "good" jobs get harder to obtain. Soaring is expensive. Hang gliding and paragliding are far less expensive. Hence the huge difference in numbers (see Swiss post above) of the remaining youth who still have the "adventure" gene active within them.
In short, there is little we can do to attract youth into sailplane flying in any large numbers. As someone pointed out, that is probably just as well as there are not enough resources to handle such an influx anyway. The best we can manage is to introduce youth to it and hope they return later in life when they can afford it.

At least the way I see it PGing is more expensive than gliding.

You need to buy your own equipment. The PGschool is commercial. The calculation I saw here was (Swiss prices so brace yourself):
3500.- For instruction
4500.- For the Wing and equipment. (low end)
Thats about 8200 USD.

In addition you need to travel to the mountains every time you want to go flying.
Basel - Rigi costs you 45 CHF there and back again.

In addtion you need to replace the wing every 5-7 years. If you are serious about safety.

Compare to that Gliding:
4500.- for instruction (non commercial)
1500.- Per year for about 80h of flying. (3.5h in 22 Flights + Club Charge)

This isn't to shoot against Paraglider pilots. Its just that costs cannot be the factor why there are 10x more PG pilots than Glider Pilots.

I heard that soaring was more expensive than powered flight in the US. If that is the case we need to identify the cost driving factors and eliminate or find ways to distribute them differently.