On Sunday, April 18, 2021 at 7:45:38 PM UTC+1, Gregg Ballou wrote:
New paragliding set ups cost as much as a nice 1-26. From what I last heard paragliding wasn't growing much but paramotoring(flying around slowly, not self launching to soar) is growing. Doesn't matter what everyone else is doing, just shows money and time is out there, and no one is using it to come play with us.

The problem(s) with gliding is simple, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with money.

We should stop worrying about trying to market our sport to people who can't afford it and begin making it attractive to people who can.
Gliding isn't very expensive and we should get over this obsession with the race to the bottom.

Just look at gliding (and the rest of aviation for that matter) from the point of view of a newbie.

£600 membership fees in return for what....an opportunity to spend more money?
If people are not receiving anything of value, they won't pay for it.
And no, a club magazine called "cloudbase", "launch point" or "cumulus" that keeps members up to date with building work going on at the airfield isn't a good deal for £600.

While we're on this subject, why do some privately run businesses charge membership fees?
If you want to form a club, then do so. But don't run it as a private business and still charge membership fees.
You can't have it both ways.

Then you've got the club atmosphere.
Is the atmosphere at your club dynamic, fresh and supportive of young/new pilots?
Or is the atmosphere one of a group of anal old fuddy-duddys who become more excited by the paperwork surrounding aviation rather than the flying itself?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, do you think people enjoy spending 10 hours stood on an airfield in return for a 20 minute up-round-and-down?
The answer is no.
If you think people enjoy this, I'm afraid you need to leave the 1960's behind already!

As a sport we need to adopt self-launching and slot booking.

And we need to stop leaving all the work to the "yoof" because we can't be arsed to do anything ourselves.