I came to sailplanes from paragliding, and love and enjoy both, for
their unique qualities, as well as their commonalities. I have always
felt that many paraglider pilots would go for sailplanes, if given a
good introduction -- one which overcame the many stereotypes
attributed to each form. I remember waiting on the paragliding launch
at Ellenville, NY, on a day with winds too high to fly, watching a
sailplane ridge-soaring overhead, and hearing another PG pilot state:
"Sailplanes are a rich man's game." The reality is that the cost per
hour may actually be lower in sailplanes, when you factor in the
enormous number of hours spent driving to the paragliding site,
waiting for the small window of acceptable weather conditions to open,
and driving home. Living in the Northeast, it was the fact that my
driving-to-flying ratio was vastly better in sailplanes than
paragliders that got me. A $15,000 SGS 1-35, which retained all it's
resale value, also looked pretty good relative to $3500 worth of PG
gear that depreciated rapidly as available gear improved from year to
year.

I could go on for days on this topic. But in a nutshell, when we
bemoan the "graying" of the SSA membership and wring our hands about
the difficulty of recruiting younger members, I think we are missing a
real opportunity by not reaching out to thousands of soaring pilots
who are mastering soaring in "low performance" (8:1 L/D) gliders.

I've always thought that the SSA and USHPA should offer each other a
page in the respective magazines which guest authors could use to
share their experience and perspective on the sports, so that each
pilot population could start to learn more about the other, and to
encourage "bi-wingualism."