We need to consider strongly inspiring our Jr glider students to go beyond a "pattern license." In fact, we need to standardize our training to make achievement of cross-country proficiency the goal rather than something that we might do later in life! Most U.S. glider students never actually experience "true soaring!" It is our fault that this is happening. At current, the goal we set for these pilots is achieving a "glider license" that includes zero cross-country skills, training or experience. The goal should be (for all clubs, instructors, and all commercial operations) to get all new glider pilots (especially Jrs) comfortable, confident and PROFICIENT with flying cross-country. Sure, some are not going to achieve this goal. So what? Let's aim higher. Much higher.

Gliding clubs are focused on rides and basic training (no cross-country). What a tragedy. In fact, most U.S. Soaring Clubs have almost zero interest in inspiring or developing cross-country skills for their students or newly licensed pilots. U.S. clubs must be re-tooled and refocused on an entirely new training goal. We need fewer trainers and more cross-country capable gliders for members to train in and rent. The conversation should not be how do we get you your glider license, it should be how do we build you into a cross-country soaring pilot capable of competing in your first soaring contest! The glider license itself should not be the goal, the first 100km solo cross-country should be the goal. We are capable of SO MUCH MORE than we are currently achieving.

Train how you fight, fight how you train. Such a fantastic quote, perhaps the best I have ever learned. In other words, we are getting what we are asking for in U.S. soaring circles today. We are getting pattern pilots who do not stick with or progress further into the sport of soaring. They get bored. It is no surprise that pilots move on when the sport consists of flying near the home airport. We wonder why we are failing (in terms of growth and development) and why all the effort we are putting into basic training at our clubs is producing fewer pilots who stick with a sport which is, to them, essentially pattern sleigh rides. We wonder why we are failing yet we have not changed the way we do things, in the slightest. We need to stop measuring how many new glider pilots were licensed this season. We need to start measuring ourselves by how many new cross-country pilots were developed this season! Clearly, how many licenses we complete is entirely irrelevant to U.S. soaring health.

Glider clubs literally build their "business" on whipping new students (members) thru the primary training cycle. The old guard within most soaring clubs are happy as pigs in "mud" when their club gliders are flying locally. Generally, they have little focus on if cross-country is being conducted. In fact, many clubs actively discourage cross-country soaring ("in club ships"). Heaven forbid a "club" glider is not on the ground on time for the next revenue producing rental! Blasphemy!

We need to fundamentally change our priorities, our mindset, and our strategy. We need to change almost everything about our current way of thinking about glider training. This includes our clubs, instructors and especially the SSA's goals and strategy. US Soaring is a marketing disaster that should be studied at graduate schools. On so many levels...

Again, Great Britain just hosted it's nearly 70 strong youth gliding national championship. They appear to have strong Jr. attendance year after year and an armada of young, highly capable cross country pilots being developed year after year! Meanwhile, the USA does not host even have a single Jr soaring event. The USA has only a handful of youth pilots who are capable of entering a contest. In short, WE SUCK!

Can anyone tell me when the last Jr contest was held in the USA? The USA is SIX TIMES the size of the UK. So don't tell me geography. We could have 6 regional youth events of equal size (NE, SE, S, NC, NW, SW) in the USA just to be equal to Britain. Don't tell me we can't do this. Of course we can. We simply do not try anymore. We are simply not focused on youth soaring. We are simply not very bright.

The first step is setting a goal to hold on US Junior Nationals with 20 pilots in 2016. A very achievable goal. All US clubs should share this goal. We need to make this happen. In time, this Junior event should be our most important of all contests, and it should be how we measure the health of our sport. The second step is "changing the guard" and getting some new leadership capable of truly inspiring our youth pilots to go further and motivate them to take the sport of soaring to its full potential. The fact that we still have embedded leadership that is not focused on growing youth contests in the US is unacceptable. Does your club leadership have a cross-country development strategy? Does your club even care about cross-country or is cross-country entirely outside of their focus? Does your club keep statistics on cross-country utilization? A strategy? Youth? Adult? How many of your clubs instructors are proficient cross-country pilots? What percentage of newly licensed pilots (from your clubs training program) achieve a cross-country badge in the first 1-2 years after being licensed? How does your club measure success? Is your club a success or a failure?

Unfortunately, right now, effective cross-country training is far beyond the capabilities and comfort zones of many instructors. We have to begin digging out of this hole someday. Why not start now?

Or, just stay the course? Keep doing what we are doing now? Keep bumbling along into oblivion.

Will 2016 be any different that 2015? Will we develop a meaningful strategy? I wonder...

Great Britain sure seems to be showing us how it is done...