On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 1:17:27 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Valid points, but income has gone up to match prices for the most part.
When I left the USAF in 1979 as a Captain on flight status, my pay was
roughly $25K. I spoke with an AF captain recently and she told me her
pay is about $85K. Neither of us could afford a new glider at our then
and now incomes.

...And I recall paying a low of $0.199/gallon during a gas war in the
60s. Many things have gone up and down(!) since the good old days. The
price of gas was just an easy one to remember. I recall a co-worker in
1968 paid $12K for a HOUSE... My Stemme cost a lot less than most
houses I'd live in today.

Fun to reminisce,
Dan

On 10/11/2016 11:05 AM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Yeah, gas was actually about a dollar plus (say $1.20) back then (mid-eighties). As a student of a good debate, I hardly think comparing the capital price paid for a toy, to a resource that must be purchased weekly or more often to be mobile in our daily lives is germane. Yes the cost of everything has gone up. But when a non-nessessaity reaches a certain price point the market saturation changes.


On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 8:21:11 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
And a gallon of gas was $0.30 back then, too. So do we all stop driving?


--
Dan, 5J

When I bought my first glass ship in 1976 it cost a year's pay for a young engineer.
My most recent glider- not quite new, cost 1-1/2 year's pay.
The real difference in terms of gliders that can go to the event and compete is that we, in the US, have Club and Sports where a $20k glider, or maybe less, has the possibility of being competitive.
The things pilots report as the biggest barriers are time and money. Time being the commitment of a week or more of very dear vacation and the cost for travel and living expenses to attend.
FWIW
UH