Very nicely put, Gregg.

Just think, if SSA were part of AOPA, we'd immediately become inundated
with pleas for more money. Hardly a week goes by that I don't get some
form of urgent, breathless call for another donation from AOPA.

On 10/27/2016 5:01 AM, wrote:
No. Bad idea. AOPA serves power pilots, and rather wealthy ones(yes even compared to us.) They'd take our money and representation and throw us under the bus every chance they could. They certainly wouldn't be interested in getting all the things SSA has gotten(no medicals, no data plates, assembly without a mechanic signoff, etc) unless they could get them for all pilots.
I loathe most organizations but will admit the SSA has done a fantastic job keeping the government creeps away from us. That is the result of a tiny group of smart, soaring obsessed folks. Throwing in with the submarine drivers and we lose that. Go join AOPA if you want, but merging SSA would be killing SSA and soaring representation.
PS most power pilots are not potential soaring pilots, sure they can do an add on in a week. Then never use it again. But most power pilots do not posses the personality of the folks that become active, driven soaring pilots. Those are the people soaring needs.
On Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 11:42:00 PM UTC-4, wrote:
This topic has been discussed before but should be revisited. If the gliding community was brought within the umbrella organization of private pilots (ie., AOPA), a larger audience of potential new soaring pilots could be reached. For example, take a look at European flying monthly magazines. There is a section of each magazine devoted to soaring pilots. I'm thinking that if we had some official role within a larger general aviation organization, we would gain exposure to growth of our sport by having our news and articles published within the general aviation publications. Currently, our gliding organization could be termed "isolationist". Talking about growing our sport through our gliding publication is like "preaching to the choir". Integrating with a much larger general aviation community and having access to its publications would create tremendous exposure. I really think it's time for a change

--
Dan, 5J