In article ,
Lauren Reitz wrote:

I've noticed that a large number of the older male
pilots in soaring didn't start out flying in gliders.
Many are ex-airline and military pilots.

I've noticed that when I've visited soaring sites in the USA, but it is
*not* the case here in New Zealand. Most glider pilots here seem to be
computer programmers, accountants, or self-employed small
businessmen/tradesmen/farmers.


If you want more women in soaring, take a proactive
stance yourself. Go take your niece/sister/wife/daughter/friend
for a ride and buy her an intro lesson or two. If they
love it, then you've just introduced another diehard
to soaring.

It's not that easy, but I've been trying ... going through my logbook,
it looks as if I've taken 37 males for a glider flight but "only" 18
females. Five of the females have come back for further passenger
flights (a higher proportion than for the males), but two of the males
have learned to fly gliders, at least to first solo, while none of the
females have. Several of the females have expressed interest in
learning, but seem to have instead continued with their
skiing/snowboarding or sailing.

My 13 year old daughter has in the last couple of weeks sudenly
expressed interest in learning to fly, after many years of only wanting
to be a pasenger, and fairly indifferent at that. I'm intending to take
the opportunity to see if her friends want to try a glider flight as
well.

-- Bruce