On Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 10:56:20 AM UTC-6, wrote:
On Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 2:27:22 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I'm the not expensive guy and in relative terms flying gliders is not expensive. Do you know any horse people? Lots of horses around and many private owners spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equestrian activity and there are orders of magnitude more horse people than glider pilots. Youth hockey is more expensive than learning to fly gliders. Know any sailboat people. Ask them how much cash the hole in the water takes to fill up. Lots of boats costing the same as a mid performance glider are on the water. Cost is a perceived barrier to entry.
As for allowing the insurance company to carry the financial risk. That's what it's for. I'm not advocating reckless flying. I am saying the insurance covers you financially on your investment so if you orang the thing you are not out the whole thing.
The drag if dinging a ship is the inconvenience of it and not necessarily the loss of cash. Most pilots who damage a glider set over the money pretty fast but not having convenient access to their toy is the painful part. We can make more money but time is gone once spent. We are never getting the summer back we lost when we damage a glider. We do recover the cash to have another go.
I've always agreed that cost is not the limiting factor to the growth of soaring in any way and wonder why any of us actually think that. Skiing, golf, horses, you name it, many people spend far more doing those than you would need to for soaring. Of the population who have all the required discretionary funds, we need a tiny percentage of that group to become involved in soaring to grow soaring exponentially. I think the biggest barrier is that it is more solitary and anti-social than how most people want to spend their leisure time. Most people just simply don't want to be in a single seat glider cockpit for most of their valuable spare time. And most glider clubs are NOT places anyone wants to "hang out", unless you are already an obsessed glider pilot. We should build glider clubs with year round swimming pools and tennis courts. If your kids wanted to go to the gliderport, and the parents could watch the game and have a beer if they weren't flying, participation would go way up. I'm single and don't have kids but I have friends with them that would join a glider club just for the pool...
I don't think money is a significant factor. Ease of entry certainly is a factor. I once checked on a lapsed SSA member who turned out to be president of a local Corvette owners club. He tried gliding and gave it a week. As he hadn't soloed, he gave it up. Turn key activities have more appeal for many.
Similar response from a power pilot who shared this. Complains of the expense, but now owns a back country 182 and a 210 for pavement. See the about the author.
https://disciplesofflight.com/glider-rating/
The most amazing, to me, is snowmobiling. Participants in the US and Canada spend $9B year.
http://www.snowmobilers.org/economic...wmobiling.aspx
http://www.snowmobile.org/docs/isma-...-fact-book.pdf
My first club in the UK had no picnic table or club house, yet it was family friendly and had moderate temps during the soaring season. Midges and green flies could be a nuisance at times. Most appreciated a day in the country, would spread a picnic blanket for lunch and stay the day and retire to the local pub from an evening meal and lively conversation amid rounds of drinks. We also had to rig and derig the fleet daily. Of course, to get a lesson you had to show up early, help rig, and get your name on the list early. If you got there early enough to be among the first six on the list, you might get a second lesson on the day.
My current club exists in a much harsher environment of temperature extremes, some winds, and potentially violent weather. Mice and rattlesnakes and flies are local nuisances. Apart from the club house, very little effort on pilot or family comfort, no spray misters, no cover on the patio though it gets PM shade from the building. Those have been suggested, but never accomplished. Other suggestions have included basketball hoop (supplied but never mounted, trashed on clean-up day), frisbee golf, zip line, above ground swimming pool, and RV hookups. Online scheduling, so only a few remain for the day of those using the club fleet, thus no significant social aspect apart from an occasional cookout or meeting or retreat to a local restaurant by 5-10 after flying, rarely including spouses.
It's a hard nut to crack.
Frank Whiteley